Bringing your whole fucking family to A&E

[changedlife]

Waiting to be seen at A&E. sent here by GP because DH has had an adverse blood result that needs to be dealt with.

A&E packed as usual. To be expected. However one family is here with one woman. There are 5 grown adults with the patient who is in her 30s... I don't know her issue but laughing a joking with the family. Just to add to the joy their phones go off constantly whereupon they give a blow by blow run down of her current medical state (she's hurt her foot it seems - from the latest phone update. )

DH is disabled. There is nowhere to sit In A&E. Foot-family are settled in and have actually just had a KFC delivery. I swear it's like an evening out for them.

DH can't stand. So have sent him back to wait in the car - which as he has a blue badge - is quite close. I'll call him when his turn comes. As I can stand.. However .. AIBU to think you don't need FIVE adults accompanying you to A&E. ? Especially with some really poorly older people have had to resort to sitting on the floor ? (And no one has volunteered their seat for them. )

Yanbu

Have you mentioned it to the reception staff? Your DH needs to sit. I’m pretty sure they will have a policy about groups of people.

YANBU

Not unreasonable at all. Have you asked the hospital if there are any more chairs they can bring round?

Don’t send him to the car, ask the staff to sort it.

The hospital staff or security should shift 3 of them on. That is completely ridiculous

No your not being unreasonable, but A&E is the wild west a lot of the time.

I'd have told them my DH was disabled and waiting to see a doctor and politely asked if one of them could give up a seat please (assuming they are taking them up).

If they'd refused I'd have spoken to whoever was on the desk and asked if they could either get some of these people to leave - or bring some extra chairs for the disabled person who WAS waiting to be seen.

Go ask them for a drumstick....

🤣

Talk to the staff. Many A&Es have a policy for only one person to accompany but will only enforce as necessary.

If vulnerable people are sitting on the floor I'm fairly sure they will make an announcement that seats are for the patients.

Obviously they're being selfish with the seats but what's stopping you speaking to the staff or asking directly.

That is ridiculous some people are so thoughtless, inconsiderate, entitled and ill mannered. Ideally, one family member with one patient max especially if space is tight and no seats available for patients.

I was at an MRI appointment recently and the medical staff turfed everyone out of the waiting area except patients with an appointment.

Fingerlicking fuckers....YANBU

they are on a night out,
pathetic
unless they happened to be out together, but surely some of them could go home!

Yabu. Some people treat it like a day out. One family I saw bought a lovely picnic. Was ok to be prepared but there was one adult patient, 2 other adults and 3 kids. They were having a great time but on the phone a lot - I think some people love the drama of it all (we could all hear and funnily enough wasn't being treated as an accident or emergency).
Was like the episode of This Country when Kerry hurt her leg😂

You have my sympathy. Hope you get seen soon.

I would be incandescent with anger. I have a lung function of under 40%, so getting a cold can be deadly for me. So a&e is not that unusual for me. As for sitting on the floor? Only if a@e has a forklift truck to get me back up again.

When my DH and I took our adult daughter only one of us was allowed to go in with her and this was not during covid times.

You should speak to reception and get a chair for your husband

YANBU but unfortunately it is extremely common. People who are dying or miscarrying or in extreme pain have to wait with unworried families having a jolly picnic and showing each other clips of monkeys on roller skates.

It is a bit Wild West like tbh.. it's not just my DH - he is relatively well off. As has the car about 20 meters from the front of A&E.. there is an L shaped bank of reception staff in the A&E so all of the waiting room is visible . No one has attempted to help. One man asked for a chair for his wife - around 70 carrying one of those cardboard sick bowls.. - and was told. 'Sorry that's all the chairs we have. ..

One security guard who is not going to get involved.. he is barely consciousness and also has a seat !

My experience at the Early Pregnancy Unit (aka the place where you find out if you have had a miscarriage or not)….

Couple turn up with their baby. I have some sympathy - it was really inappropriate but it can be difficult to find childcare. Except that they were also accompanied by…. Her mum and her dad. And then, just as every person in the room had spent 20 minutes staring longingly at the baby, her sister also turns up. In a hospital gown with a bag of urine strapped to her leg.

I couldn’t even laugh at the ridiculousness of the entire thing because I had drunk my two litres of water and it would have ended badly.

For some, it's a spectator sport, the A&E

I’d be really cross. I’d speak to the staff. No need to bring more than one person in the cast majority of cases

If they don't think this number of adults and ordering in a LFC is odd then they won't even think to offer chairs. It's horrible and I'm sorry you're in this position

YANBU!
I was in and out of hospital for tests over the weekend with what turned out to be a ruptured ovarian cyst and on the first trip there was a woman with a friend and her mother and all they did was loudly complain about the wait and loudly make rude remarks about the nurses daring to eat while she was still waiting, it was honestly so rude and SO ANNOYING.
I ended up actually sitting outside for a while because I just couldn’t listen to them swap between rudely complaining without actually speaking to anyone about it, or laughing and loudly telling funny stories like they were at the local pub for a catch up.
The staff were really apologetic and she ended up leaving without receiving any results or speaking to a surgeon (we were in the surgical decisions unit) so it obviously couldn’t have even been that bad!
Really hope your DH is okay and you get away from annoying people asap!