AIBU to think you should get dressed for a medical appointment

[Ducksbehindthesofa]

Following on from the PJs on a plane post earlier today, curious to hear the consensus on this.

I had the misfortune of winding up in A&E on New Year's Day and was amazed by the number of people in grubby nightwear, dressing gowns, and slippers in the waiting room. There was an enormous amount of groaning, coughing, sniffing and sneezing going on by most of the wearers, so I guess there was a lot of the winter lurgy going on.

And last week, whilst at my GP practice (small village surgery where nobody would live more than a few minutes away), there was a woman in the waiting room wearing a dressing gown and Ugg boots, accessorised with a washing-up bowl on her knee. She did have some make-up on though, so a point was added for effort.

It's just yeuch, isn't it? If you're well enough to drag yourself to a doctor or hospital, you're well enough to at least throw some clothes on.

And I know it's none of my business and it doesn't matter one jot to me really, but I don't have to like it!

Really, you've never gone to bed with your make up on? So its still there the next morning, or she might never have actually made it to sleep, perhaps up all night after changing into PJs and chucking up in the loo for hours before making it to the surgery

Taken by ambulance? Pjs fine. Small dc? Fine. Most people can manage to shove clothes on. So many people I know sleep naked so I’m guessing they would dress before going in. I hate that it’s “acceptable” to be anywhere in pjs. There’s a small number of occasions when people could end up in A&E in pjs but mostly they can put joggers and a jumper on.

I had Covid at the very beginning of 2020 (before we knew what it was). At one point 111 sent me to a&e. I could get dressed OR I could get in the car for dh to take me to a&e. There was no way I had the energy to do both. I absolutely hated it but there was no option

you could also argue that hat if your ill enough for a&e you’re too ill to get dressed.

Is this going the way you’d hoped OP? 😅

The clue is a bit in the name with A&E - people wind up there when they least expect it. How do you know what is wrong with the people in the waiting room? Why do you care?

But when you see people in the waiting room, you don’t know whether they arrived by ambulance and you don’t know how well they were when they arrived.

YANBU
Grim (understatement).

Do you know something, a&e and gp’s I would never do but each to their own, my peeve is fully grown adults dropping their child to school in their pyjamas and dressing gowns and I’m not talking about in the car where the child gets out themselves I mean walking to the school gates in their pyjamas, feel so sorry for their children

I literally can't imagine giving any kind of monkey's about this, at all.

Any time I have felt unwell enough to go to out of hours or A&E I have was feeling too dreadful to notice what other people are wearing . Or to judge anyone there . You have no idea what some people are going through .

Sometimes I had to go straight from work , one time too sensitive to tolerate any trousers or tights in winter so ugly tracksuit belonging to DH it was.
What a silly thing to start a thread about . You know it won't end well for you .

I had severe Hyperemesis too and also want to tell the OP to, respectfully, STFU.

Woman with washing up bowl suggestive of bad nausea ? You prefer vomit covered jeans ?

And really OP, if you were well enough to be eying up people's outfits were you actually sick, were you actually in need from A+E? Hmm?

I might judge you for this.

I’ll hold my hands up I’ve attended A&E in my pyjamas (with a coat thrown over the top) and DS wearing a babygrow and sleeping bag. He was an infant and was admitted in the middle of the night with suspected meningitis. Thankfully it was not meningitis, but he did need IV fluids and antibiotics.

I’m terribly sorry if our clothing would have offended you. My priority was kind of on hoping my child didn’t die and not making myself presentable for strangers who might be in the waiting room

On the other hand, if you're well enough to make an effort with your appearance do you really need to be in A&E? If someone was brought in by an ambulance but were able to get dressed beforehand they probably didn't need the ambulance. That's not to say I'd judge someone who was dressed well, we're not sat in PJs all day, but nor would I think anything of someone in A&E in their PJs.

My daughter had a sudden allergic reaction late at night. The last thing on my mind when advised by 111 to go to hospital was to pull on smart clothes and put makeup on

Or it was left over from the day before.

BTW if you ever visit a maternity ward you may well see naked children, and horror of horrors, women in a state of undress.

I went to A&E in my PJs a few years ago, I was mid way through a severe gallstone attack which caused an infection, projectile vomiting and led to me being admitted for 5 days on morphine and IV antibiotics and having emergency surgery. It was during Covid so I couldn’t have any visitors and literally had the contents of my handbag and stuff the hospital could scrounge up for me to wear for that whole 5 days.

Sometimes it isnt possible in an EMERGENCY to get cleaned up, get changed and pack a bag.

I am a nurse and can honestly say I have never judged people, rocking up to A&E, for being inappropriately dressed. How shallow and vacuous, making supercilious comments about sick people. Where's your compassion? Where's your empathy?

Why does a woman get a point for wearing make up?

No, I didn’t think I was ‘that ill’. But I had a temperature of 39.9 - 40.4, and being right in the middle of a course of chemo, the staff at the hospital had a different opinion to me.

I thought A&E was for the very sick and accidents, not sitting on a perch of judgement. I've been to hospital in my PJs OP because I was too ill and upset to get dressed So yes OP YABU and if you're well enough to notice what people are wearing when they're sick you shouldn't be in the emergency department

If you’re well enough to drag yourself to a doctor or hospital, you’re well enough to at least throw some clothes on

Given that you saw some of these people at A&E, that seems like an insane statement “if you’re well enough for A&E, you’re well enough to be properly dressed”

Perhaps you could do a chart for the wall of what’s acceptable wear you which ailment!

You sound awful!

I was dressed properly when I slipped and fell and DH had to take me to A&E. It was pure luck. If it had happened when I was naked, I may well have gone in my birthday suit.

I agree that for Drs / Hospital etc. where people are ill they’re just wearing whatever’s comfortable and that’s fine. I don’t really get the whole day to day going out in PJs to go the shopping etc, but people do and it seems to be fairly standard behaviour.
Yesterday I popped out to my local shop and there was a woman wearing a towel! She’d come from the flat next door and went back after she’d done her shopping and I did wonder why she hadn’t just chucked some clothes on, but she seemed quite happy, so I guess whatever people feel comfortable with!