To think staff in a hospital coffee shop should have their own priority queue?

[Thorilicious]

Just getting a coffee while visiting a relative in hospital. A few of the people in the queue are paramedics, nurses. I think they should have their own queue, so that they can be served first, so they aren't wasting their break queuing.
(I would have let them in front of me, but the queue only built up once I had paid.)

@Souquet Nope, disagree. They must be on breaks and can queue like anyone else.

wow. Here’s how it works. Intricate operation such as some neurosurgeries that can take a LONG time, 20 odd hours is not common but not unknown. The neurosurgeon and anaesthetist, who are pretty integral, need to take a wee, leg stretch and coffee top up every few hours. Sometimes the 2IC’s keep going and sometimes it just grinds to a halt with anaesthetics continued but nothing happening. In order to keep the patient under for the least time possible in total, they race out to the toilet, down for a decent barista coffee (as opposed to vile instant in the staff room) whilst crunching a protein bar on the way, bolt the coffee down on the way back up, scrub back in. It helps if they can be served quickly.

Same as with A&E. I don’t know what you refer to as ‘breaks’. Generally it’s foregoing food and rushing out to get a coffee, taking 10mins to chug it down at a desk while chatting for the 10mins (to have patients bitching about staff sitting around chatting rather than seeing them during this 10mins), then back to it. The sooner you get served at the coffee cart the sooner the A&E queue progresses.

Let’s hope next time you have your next ‘let them queue on their break thought bubble’ that it’s not your child on the operating table or someone you care about sitting in the A&E queue. By the way, staff are well used to arseholes with untoward thought bubbles, they will never shock anyone at this point.

I think that would be hard for the cafe to manage

I assume they have staff rooms and could make coffee there if they wanted

Tue way it works these days most places is staff have ‘staff only’ eating areas/canteen but it’s only tables/chairs and instant coffee/tea bag you make via zip boil but you do get milk in fridges supplied. If you want decent coffee or any food you don’t bring from home, you need to go get it at the same places in the hospital that serve the general public.

I do agree that if it’s staff that actually have a proper break period or at the end of shift grabbing a coffee they should wait like everyone else but I do disagree that those who don’t get breaks as such should wait. It’s just common sense. Take the para’s/ambo’s, the quicker they get served their coffee the quicker they are back on the road, it’s to everyone’s advantage.

I always let the staff in front of me, but then I feel guilty because I've also then let them in front of the queue behind me.

Tbf you should feel guilty for that! You don’t have the right to make people behind you wait longer just because you want to be publicly virtuous, especially in a hospital where it’s a given that there will be stressed or upset people.

If you want to enable staff to get their drinks sooner, then give them your space in the queue and you go to the back. You don’t give away other peoples time and position in the queue, that’s so rude!

This is a fair point, but then you would either need enough staff for a separate queue, or a whole separate cafe like in the old days.

but I don’t think your average tiny hospital costa can manage two queues

I would have thought decent coffee machines and snacks in the staff rooms would be the best solution

I assume they have staff rooms and could make coffee there if they wanted

Funnily, most people don’t want cut price bulk coffee that tastes like weak cat piss if there is an alternative. The weak cat piss gets saved for nights when there is no alternative.

In our hospital it's one queue, but hospital staff will always be obvious & will be served first

Staff room? Whats that, is it the room where all the broken junk is stored and unused zimmer frames, walking sticks and dripstands missing a wheel.

Would love this. Often spend half my break queueing!

I agree for paramedics as they are going to all different hospitals and probably don’t have access to tea and coffee facilities in a staff room/ area and need to buy food on the go.

I don’t agree so much for other staff, it’s a choice to use your break to go and purchas a hot drink/ food from a cafe and reasonable to be part of the queue. If all NHS staff (contact staff like doctors, nurses, HCAs and porters but also you’d have all your non-contact staff like receptionists, admin staff, managers, cleaners; most hospitals will have hundreds of staff) could skip the queue then customers who are also in a rush to get back to their sick relatives for example could be waiting endlessly because they keep being cut in front of.

Not all NHS staff are rushed off their feet or working directly with patients/ in busy areas and in a position where they can’t queue. Most will have access to a staff room with tea/ coffee making facilities as an alternative and if they don’t I think putting in place those staff facilities so that tea/ coffee is available on every break is a better alternative to taking away the need to queue at a cafe with limited hours of service anyway.

YANBU...

And dont forget the stinky shoes and dusty cardigans from staff who left 10 years ago and the sink full of green mouldy mugs, ah, those were the days.

Staff canteen at the hospital I worked at but the patient coffee shop coffee was far nicer so some chose to queue there. The idea that hospital medical staff have an actual break or a “staff room” is hilarious 😂. The NHS has zero money for “fancy” things like that. Can you imagine the conversation drs would have to have with patients “sorry sir we can’t afford to give you this blood transfusion as the ward staff in MAU have just bought a nespresso machine with integrated milk frother”.

yes totally

But they are private companies, there to make a profit, not to give out free stuff or employ staff and tills to have a NHS only queue.

Of course that shouldn't be the case, they shouldn't pay for parking or public transport to get to work either.

We voted for all of this, time and time again.

OK idea in theory until you get staff abusing it when they’re in town shopping and decide to pop in because it’s the nearest one. I also work for the NHS and they’re so keen on equality and diversity that the unions would insist that every single member of staff was included. This is great for staff morale but a secretary who
can pick up a coffee whenever (eg a quieter time) shouldn’t be able to skip the line in front of a patient who has 5 mins before their appointment.

It’ll never work.

OK idea in theory until you get staff abusing it when they’re in town shopping and decide to pop in because it’s the nearest one.

I can't imagine a single town centre where the hospital cafe is closer to the shops than the actual high street cafes. Happy to learn though.

Our canteen has Just started letting people back in and I hate it. I was sat on my own the other day and a patient came and sat down at my table as it was busy. I ended up leaving. I don’t want to spend my unpaid break being polite to patients.
The league of friends or “league of thief’s” is extortionate. It’s over £2.25 for a bottle of coke. Only go there if am desperate.

Our hospital has staff canteens / shop. I know as my relative works there. But they still all wait in line in the costa queue. Maybe they have better coffee

I work on a hospital site and there is no staff canteen or cafe. They even got rid of a vending machine. The public cafe is a commercial Starbucks type place which often has long queues of patients. This closes at normal closing time so in the evening and at night there’s nothing at all. It’s awful for the staff. It’s not a small local hospital, it’s a big one with an A&E , trauma centre etc.

This came up on Twitter and there were people who didn’t believe me when I said the hospital had no staff canteen or cafe!

There might be a couple in London.. generally hospitals are out of town because they require a big site with parking etc and often the prices are a premium above the high street. Who wants to go into their workplace on their day off anyway!
honestly this view of staff trying to squeeze out every tiny privilege for the sake of it is ridiculous. Staff will just join the back of the queue or go without. The problem is the lack of basic facilities provided by the employer which contributes to poor staff working conditions

I wouldn't bother debating it, OP. The pandemic showed what the general public really think of healthcare workers when they were jealous that companies were giving 20% off to people watching COVID patients die all day.

Surely its something they have to factor in when deciding where to get their food and drink from. I don't work in a hospital I work in a very busy supermarket. My colleagues get half an hour break and if they want food or drink they have to queue up with shoppers as well no priority plus as they are walking through the store to the colleagues area they are often stopped by people with queries, even when it is quite clear they are on their break.

@Souquet At the hospital where I work, there is no staff canteen, no staff cafe, and the public cafe is not subsidised. Staff have absolutely no access to subsidised catering and even the one full price, expensive commercial outlet is only open during normal hours. Even then it’s so busy most people don’t bother to join the queue.
Lots of people on this thread are saying the same about their hospitals.

NHS staff pay full price for food/drink, pay for their car parking, don’t have nice “staff rooms” as people imagine, rarely get the breaks they’re entitled to, yet have to hear people moaning about their supposed “perks” which even if they DID get, would be a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the money wasted by mismanagement. No wonder morale is low and people are leaving in droves.

It's not really the same as being a nurse, is it?

Healthcare work has unique stressors beyond having to scan stuff or put things on shelves.