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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that if you are high risk you should prob not be on the bus?

212 replies

malificent7 · 14/09/2020 07:13

Prepared to get lynched here but i get the bus to hospital placement every day. There is a young man on bus who normally wears a mask. Today he wasn't. He forgot.
A woman on the bus kicked off at him massively as she has cancer. Yes i do sympathise with her but if I had cancer I wouldnt be travelling by bus. Id go to chemo by taxi. The risk is just too great atm.
He should have worn a mask but she should be protecting herself. My mum died of cancer so I know how hard it us.

OP posts:
FuzzyPuffling · 14/09/2020 08:31

When my DH had cancer our household income went down to basic benefits. Hospital is a 92 mile round trip. No hospital transport was available.
OP, please get yourself just a tiny bit of empathy...getting through it was a bloody nightmare without judgy people having a go.

Yesterdayforgotten · 14/09/2020 08:33

People who can wear masks should, YABU and taxis are more expensive

goingtotown · 14/09/2020 08:33

If the young man on the bus forgot his mask he shouldn’t be allowed on the bus.

DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult · 14/09/2020 08:34

@Emeraldshamrock, thanks. I have a cancer with a very good survival rate, and caught it early, so I should hopefully be ok. Just need this covid crap to stop so I can get my treatments and op faster.

Original poster
malificent7 · 14/09/2020 08:37

I have come round and agree that the young man should not have got on the bus. She did get off at the shopping centre not the hospital.

OP posts:
Scarby9 · 14/09/2020 08:37

As a skint student you should know that a daily taxi would be out of your budget and therefore presumably out of hers.

Buses are meant to be relatively safe currently. Everyone (who can) in masks and distanced. It is scary when somewhere you thought you could trust to be safe suddenly turns out not to be.

corythatwas · 14/09/2020 08:38

Apart from the obvious question of the expense, who says that taxis are safer? It's a small confined space. Dd stopped taking them when she realised the drivers take their masks off whenever they're not actually driving a customer.

The young man wasn't allowed on the bus because he'd forgotten his mask- well, he wouldn't have been allowed on if he'd forgotten his ticket/money either.

Rosehip10 · 14/09/2020 08:42

@malificent7 oh now we get the (probabaly made up) drip feeding that the women got off at the shopping centre Hmm Come on OP - did you expect loads of people to agree with your stance and now are adding stuff to try and deflect from your poor attitude?

pastandpresent · 14/09/2020 08:43

"She did get off at the shopping centre not the hospital."

So what's the difference? As other pp says, maybe you are not suitable for medical profession after all, if you are still trying to defend your pov, even though you say you came around and agree.

Yoloyohol · 14/09/2020 08:44

Young man could have pulled his shirt or jacket over his face if he wanted to.

There is NO money here to pay for a taxi and it's very ignorant to claim to be skint yet able to pull out the money for one. You clearly don't know what skint is.

I have no choice over transport for hospital and to seek work. The NHS doesn't provide travel for treatment here. I'm also dependent on reduced food and people use leaning over me to compete. If you have no money you just have to take your chances, it's what your government wants.

DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult · 14/09/2020 08:44

Bet the next drip feed will be that she kicked a puppy on her way to the shopping centre for a days shoplifting.

QueenPaws · 14/09/2020 08:45

I'm high risk, and will be immunocompromised for life. Am I meant to just not go to work or shop or go for a meal out or on a train? Pretty shit life if I just go from home to work like at the minute

Soubriquet · 14/09/2020 08:46

@malificent7

I have come round and agree that the young man should not have got on the bus. She did get off at the shopping centre not the hospital.
And?

Maybe she needed to get some stuff in

Maybe she stopped there before her appointment

Is she only allowed to the hospital then?

nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut · 14/09/2020 08:49

You have the option to pay for the sake of your health. Some of us don't. If the money isn't physically there, she can't 'just pay.' And now people with cancer can't go and get their shopping and shouldn't be on public transport because people can't be expected to obey the law in the middle of a pandemic? Jesus wept....

Suddenly I can see why kids are becoming such entitled little fuckers these days if this is the example parents are setting.

rainkeepsfallingdown · 14/09/2020 08:50

I got a taxi to the doctor's the other day.

It was late, it went the wrong way, I was charged more than I expected, and the driver kept helpfully telling me I could take my mask off if I wanted. I did not want.

I took the bus home.

LondonJax · 14/09/2020 08:52

When my mum was taken to A & E my DH had to drop me at the hospital then take the car back home as we had DS at home on his own.

Which meant I had to get a cab home. £35...one way. So that's a £70 round trip to our nearest hospital. That's a lot of money to find. You can get hospital transport but, having been in a department with mum and talking to a woman who had been waiting for the transport for four hours, it isn't a taxi service. It's available but it comes when it's able, not when you need it.

That's the point with masks though - we shouldn't forget them. Bet the young man didn't leave his wallet or his keys at home, so just put your mask out with them every night and you're sorted.

We need to forget social distancing and think of it as social protecting.

Peanutbutteryogurt · 14/09/2020 08:57

If the nhs are providing the service ( which they were for mil) I would urge the high risk to take it...especially for chemo as your immune system is fucked.

Wow, I hope your hospital placement isn't something like a doctor or nurse? You don't even have a basic understanding of how things work. 'the NHS' isn't one giant entity running exactly the same across the entire country.

AlrightTreacle · 14/09/2020 08:57

Tbh if you're working in the hospital, I'd argue you're the one who shouldn't be on the bus.

At my hospital the staff were offered free/heavily discounted bikes at the start of all this, so they didn't have to use public transport and risk spreading covid to others, especially patients who needed to use the bus for hospital appointments and treatments.

So I think get on yer bike OP!

OhCaptain · 14/09/2020 08:58

@malificent7

I have come round and agree that the young man should not have got on the bus. She did get off at the shopping centre not the hospital.
Oh, well she can’t be sick then, right?

I stopped at shops to get supplies before going in for treatments all the time.

Or do you think that she should be saving her pennies for the taxis she should be getting?

Angelina82 · 14/09/2020 09:00

She did get off at the shopping centre not the hospital.

And your point is?

AlrightTreacle · 14/09/2020 09:02

Also, you should take this as a learning opportunity to find out about the criteria for patients being provided with NHS/council funded hospital transport in your area. It will probably suprise you that the criteria is usually very strict, and it is quite hard to qualify for it.

There are volunteer drivers who only ask for a contribution for petrol, but as many of them are retired and older, I would guess there aren't as many of them available atm.

So for patients on a lower income, with no family or friends to ask for lifts, the bus might be their only available option.

Purplespup16 · 14/09/2020 09:03

I live in an area where there are certain times of the day where it is impossible to get a taxi, they are all ear marked for school transport! You can’t get a taxi between 8am and 9:30am and 2:30pm and 4pm! So even IF she could afford it it may just not be possible to get a taxi! Even then you need to book days in advance. It’s quite possible there just wasn’t a taxi available to her!

backaftera2yearbreak · 14/09/2020 09:05

I used to work for a large cancer charity helping people get benefits.

If that woman was living alone her income could be as low as 73.10 a week. Cancer patients often don’t meet criteria for things like PIP and it they do it can take up to 20 weeks to sort out.

Hospital transport picks you up at stupid o’clock in the morning and people will often have to wait hours and hours after their appointment to be taken home. They have to sit around in a hospital waiting room.

You could of course just mind your own business.

PurpleDaisies · 14/09/2020 09:07

She did get off at the shopping centre not the hospital.

Cancer patients still need shopping. Hmm

KatherineJaneway · 14/09/2020 09:17

I agree that the man should have worn the mask but also she should be aware that with a weakened immune system the bus is not sae even with masks.

Nowhere is ever safe but it would be safer with him wearing a mask than not.