To think only the patient and maybe one companion needs to sit in the waiting room?

[BoobsOnTheMoon]

I'm at the (very small rural) MIU, on my own, waiting to get a burn looked at. Every single other patient has at least one person with them. There is only one other patient who has just one companion and that's an 8 week old baby!

There's an older baby with 3 adults.

A youngish girl with 2 parents and 2 other children.

A man who has brought 2 young adults (well old enough to leave at home or in the car) with him.

An elderly lady who had 2 adults with her and then another 2 adults came in to join them, but there were no chairs left to sit on so they pulled over a couple of patient wheelchairs and sat in those. The whole group (elderly lady included) are doing the cryptic crossword.

Wtf? Easily 3/4 of the people in this waiting room are not patients. Surely thats not normal, or is it?

The staff need to sweep them out. Ludicrous and unnecessary.

Even with a burn serious enough to attend a clinic…. Does t stop you whipping out your phone for a bit of mumsnet judging.
You don’t know what the heck the background is to each of those waiting
so butt out and just wait patiently to be seen

It's boring waiting in a clinic. Posting passes the time. And OP is quite right.
There is rarely a need for an entire family to accompany the patient, which is often what happens. I attended A&E with what turned out to be an ovarian cyst, in pain and vomiting. I had to stand for an hour, then sit on the floor while seats were taken up with 'accompanying' adults and children who were not sick in the slightest and took up all the available seating. A nurse came out and shifted someone eventually. Gave them a proper bollocking tbh.

I'm with you OP

• one other person only, unless they are both actively caring for the sick person
• maybe 2 parents with a child
• non-sick children only if the one adult that looks after them is the sick person or has to be with a sick child, or a very sick adult.

It’s an eventful day out to some weirdos people.

There is absolutely no need for both parents and a hoard of kids to be there.

You think it’s fine to cram already stressful A&E with a load of extra unnecessary randoms?

She sounds perfectly reasonable. You sound lacking in empathy and seem to want to condone selfish and inconsiderate behaviour so when dishing out the ‘unpleasant’ word, take a look in the mirror.

Yep. Bored teenagers following mum and dad around tesco always baffles me. They should be out with their mates but some families must do everything together.

What does MIU mean?

Yes that’s totally different though and understandable

Minor injuries unit

You would hate our family. MIL admitted to A&E via ambulance for a stroke. FIL has dementia and cannot be left alone at all so it took two of us to wrangle them for a six hour admission process. Then we had to ask to break the midday visiting hours because my FIL was beside himself with not being with his wife (not to mention it took three grown adults to get him home, into bed and none of us had any sleep because he was so angry that his wife wasn't next to him).
Surely no one goes to hospital, even as an onlooker, for shits and giggles.

It always amuses me how so many people on mumsnet seem to reckon they are 'rural', but I'm chuckling at the thought of a "very small rural" MIU having 5 patients waiting at the same time, nevermind a waiting room big enough to accommodate 20 people 😆

IT WASN'T A&E

It was a minor injuries unit. I did say that in the first line of the OP.

So no, nobody was having a stroke or bleeding out or in life threatening danger. Which means nobody really needed 4 adults to sit with them to do the cryptic crossword loudly at each other support them.

So, not a comparable situation to being in the minority injuries unit, then.

YANBU at all.

I was only having this conversation about A&E departments a couple of days ago with someone.

The comments are odd seeing how 85% of people who have voted, agree with you.

Last time I had to go to A&E it was packed and some patients were having to stand. Despite repeated requests, I didn't see one accompanying adult relative give up their seat for a patient. The vast majority of adults don't need to be accompanied. YANBU

Yep quite often hear my neighbour go to hospital
and all her adult kids pile up there too. I do think some people think it is an activity!

Well when I say very small and rural, it's 20 miles from the nearest A&E - it's not attached to a bigger "proper" hospital, is what I meant! It's quite nice tbf with lovely facilities including a waiting room with about 15 seats plus a separate children's waiting room with another 8 or so seats (which was full of adults 🙄). It's a brand new build that amalgamated 2 much smaller MIUs last year. Maybe that's why everyone's entire family wanted to come and see it

I sympathise with this.

My parents are now of an age, frailty and interdependence that when one needs A&E it is unthinkable that the other does not go. And usually a family member in town will meet them there, because otherwise we won’t know what’s really happening.

But whole families do attend for no reason. Ordering takeaway! DH has seen this also. Drives me mad and it’s terrible hygiene.

There should be a limit, I see it in A&E a lot. Sometimes they’ll ban having anyone with you and sometimes limit it to one. I don’t get why people bring the whole family, there’s people ill, in pain, vulnerable.
I do think it’s best to have 1 person with you as they help the patient, comfort, help to toilet etc and save the nurses a job.

@kittensinthekitchen many rural MIU are based in community hospitals that have a rehab ward and out patient clinics during the week. In rural Devon and Cornwall there are several in small towns that serve the wider rural community.

You think it’s fine to cram already stressful A&E with a load of extra unnecessary randoms?

Clearly some people do. I think it comes from watching too many soap operas when the minute a character is in hospital the entire village turns up and have dramatic encounters with each other and the poor debilitated patient. The staff seem not to mind, and answer questions from all and sundry about the patient's condition. Dramatically.

Outside soaps there is really no need for more than one accompanying adult.
There may occasionally be extenuating circumstances but generally not so.
I've had my husband have to drive me to A&E with the children because we had nobody to watch the kids. But once there with me checked in he took them home as is normal, and I managed all by myself alone in the hospital.
Because there are doctors and nurses there who are more use to me than
my rowdy kids and husband trying to rein them in for 3 hours.

That was one good thing that came out of covid. Nobody roaming around hospitals and A&E departments who didn't actually need to be there.

(Obviously people with dying relatives had every need to be there}

I agree as others have said we should reduce numbers of extra people (not the patient) attending A&E and elsewhere to be considerate about infection control, space and comfort for other patients. It's just basic consideration ..its not a social outing.

when my dd was hurt at home i rang a and e, i think, or someone, and told me to take her sibling
so yabu
plus not everyone can drive
i do agree in principle although there are exceptions

People treat it as a day out. Sunny day? You can predict it is gonna be quiet till the mid/late afternoon because why waste a sunny day in a&e or as soon as the weather turns bad they all trot in. Yes unreasonable for multiple people to stay with the patient. On many occasions I've gone round the waiting room asking non patients to vacate their seat for an actual patient (obv being mindful of essential carers and ability to stand)