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?

It's the modern day Jeremy Kyle show.

A day out for the whole family to enjoy gawking and gossiping about the vulnerable.

It'll be the highlight of their month.

So just one

I am with OP here. This is ridiculous, no need for all these people to be cluttering up the waiting area. This just doesn't happen where I live in the US. It's generally just the patient in the waiting area, at the most one other person if they need help. What's wrong with people in England, can't they do anything by themselves?

So if other units have an issue with this, then presumably they will implement the same or similar rules

Totally agree with OP. Last year took DP 4 times to A&E due to medical issues that reoccur without warning. ( no cure ). Area heaving with people and over 70% or more were not patients. Notlices asking non patients to not take up seating - totally ignored. Amazing how many 'patients' needing emergency treatment go outside with their entourage for a smoke and not availablewhen name called! After DP triaged and given pain relief I leave. I can't help in any way and get in the Dr's and nurses way.

Yanbu at all. I find that people who do this are generally quite thick, and selfish, as seen by the initial replies to your thread. Common sense seemed to disappear around the year 2000 unfortunately.

Its ridiculous to have multiple people sat waiting for you in a busy waiting room especially if they are using patient wheelchairs to sit on!

I have the same gripe when i go to the maternity hospital and the waiting room is full of men sat on all the chairs as pregnant women stand.

Could be multiple carers. My grandfather is blind and likes to have my grandmother with him as she's his carer. They've been married for over 60 years and he's been blind for around 40 years.

Problem is, my grandmother is now 86, increasingly frail and losing her own eyesight. Neither can be left home alone for very long. So, one of my aunts or uncles usually comes with them both to appointments. The uncle who is retired, and has the most time to take them, doesn't speak Welsh, so if the appointment is for my grandfather, he needs my grandmother there to translate. Especially if the appointment is in English - my grandfather is losing his hearing and finds English harder to follow. My grandmother sometimes needs to translate what the doctor is saying to him from English to Welsh.

People have multiple barriers to accessing health care sadly.

Tbf though, our MIU requests only patients wait unless they are a child and need accompanying, or require a carer/s. They're quite strict on it and send people away at the door.

I was turned away when DH broke his toe but DH was allowed with me for an asthma attack so he could alert staff to any worsening whilst I waited.

I agree, my local A&E is ALWAYS full & it seems to have got smaller ! I was in there for over 24 hours when I was seriously dehydrated, I needed fluids & had to sit in worn out uncomfortable chairs for 2hours , at a time , in my opinion the NHS has gone backwards , but I have to say some people are there with ailments that really could have been seen to by out of hours dr? Just a thought , But I’ve also seen homeless people using the place as somewhere to sleep , so using up chairs to sleep on , I did lay down on 2chairs as I was so desperately sick I couldn’t sit up, the A&E had no beds! Not a nice experience x

@CaffiSaliMali my local MIU often asks if you came by car.
If people say yes they sometimes ask them to wait in their car until they get called in rather than the waiting room.
It started during COVID but they've carried on doing it.

My daughter is petrified of doctors so when we go, my husband always comes too.

One of us distracts, the other speaks to the doctor. Otherwise, she screams that loudly, nobody can hear and it's unpleasant for those waiting.

The doctors have no issue so I don't see why you do.

In a place full of vulnerable people it makes sense to keep additional traffic to a minimum to reduce infection risk. I agree with you OP, this turning up mob handed is unpleasant.

The first few posters clearly enjoy a nice day out with their "little family" down a&e. Probably tag themselves in too and then when someone asks what's wrong reply "pm me hun."

Of course yanbu unreasonable. There are very few occasions when a patient needs more than one adult companion. Anymore is not only annoying but (ironically given the location) impacts on health and safety - from the increased chance of ill people spreading germs, to issues with evacuating in an emergency when the place is overcrowded and people are sitting on the floor.

DH took me to A&E last year when I injured my arm and wrist in a fall and stayed with me as I was in pain and in shock. He did ask the triage nurse if it was okay if he stayed and she replied that it was fine unlike, she said, some who turn up with a cast of thousands. I was very glad he was there as I get a bit jittery around hospitals (and he needed to help me when i needed the loo!).

Have not read the full thread but I completely agree OP and don't know why the first replies were bashing you. I had to sit my son on my lap when I had to take him in because so many had whole families in there. Kids who aren't the patient really shouldn't have to be there when there is also a "spare" adult, it's even crapper for them than it was for me.
I'm short, so my lap slopes down and it was really uncomfortable for us both. I'd have sat on the floor, but there wasn't room to do that either without sitting on someones feet!

I know a family who do this. They do everything as a family, even if it means dragging other children to appointments or a&e at 11pm. It’s mainly because the dad doesn’t want to take the child to the appt or be left with the other child. He’ll tell everyone how involved he is though because they do so much ‘as a family’

It’s the lack of dignity that upsets me

This. It’s awful. Last time I was given morphine to take while people looked on as they ate their kfc while I was having a heart attack.

My granddad had dementia. It was necessary for him to be accompanied to a and e by 2 family members. Otherwise he would have walked out when i went to the toilet. I cannot go without using the toilet for several hours.

There seems to be a thing with some people to consume as many resources as possible, whether it is take the whole family out to the supermarket and block the aisles, walk in the one position on the path that prevents anyone else overtaking on either side (most effective if you have a dog), switch their engine on and leave it idling for 10 minutes because fuel is so cheap, or collectively drive one car each into town centres then complain about the traffic congestion and lack of parking. It is what happens when people live in a comfortable Western country where the residents haven't had to deal with the horrific poverty and hardship people from further afield suffer on a daily basis, everything is taken for granted and efficiency is too much effort.

@TwinklyFawn In your granddad’s situation, it makes complete sense. The OP was talking about patients who don’t really need support from multiple people.

I’m not sure what to vote for. In principle I agree with you, but sometimes people have no choice. I had an emergency procedure at the start of the summer holidays last year (we were away in UK). Following that, I was told I would have to have a dressing cleaned and changed every 48 hours. This took the whole summer. My doctor’s surgery wouldn’t let me do it there, the walk-in centre told me I had to be seen before 4pm for dressings, doctor’s surgery told me walk-in would do pre-bootable, walk-in surgery told me they didn’t and that GP surgery should be doing it. The actual “appointments” took 2-3 minutes each, apart from the first few.

I have long covid and am mainly housebound. My “able to do something days, even if just for a little bit” are so precious. Sitting in infectious waiting rooms for hours is the last place I want to be - and definitely the last place I want my kids.

Sometimes people have no choice.

Going to that many appointments was always going to permanently reduce my baseline. Being sent from pillar to post, endless hours on hold, endless hours of being told computer says no and endless hours in waiting rooms just meant my baseline is even further permanently reduced now. I’ve gone from being able to do mostly fuck all to even less. Why, when my long covid has already had a large impact on my kids, would I want to make their holidays shit by spending hours in walk-in? At the last appointment, when they agreed I could manage it at home, I wanted to hug the nurse. I no longer work since long covid, but how could someone working justify a day or more off a week for a dressing change?

So, yes, in principle I agree, but I think lack of choice/circumstances are more prevalent than some might realise. The group situation might be someone who needs help, but has a dependent (eg a wife with dementia) who won’t be left with anyone else, hence a son or daughter to help support who has to bring kids.

Yeah, it's really bizarre.

The one that sticks in my mind was in the resus of a major trauma centre.
Obviously life threatening injuries. People nearly dying.

There was a mob of maybe twenty young/ middle aged men, all lingering in the hallway, and the entire visitors room was full of loads of them as well, like another 15. Every seat taken. Loud chatting, all of them going for a smoke so opening and closing the door constantly.

I was sat in tears on this one chair and the nurse said it was for the paramedics.

The nurse ended up ferrying all the men into another area away from resus and left all the women in the waiting room who gossiped loudly while I tried to sleep/cry. It was between 9pm and 2am they were there.

The nurses confirmed they were all there for one person.

My local A&E has a sign up saying one supporter only. I once saw the receptionist try to enforce it on a lady who'd just come in with two companions. They accused the receptionist of being racist!