To think people should be banned from taking someone with them to medical appointments unless they need assistance (and then just one person)

[CurdinHenry]

Sick of standing waiting for appointments while one girl sits on her arse with her five boon companions in the waiting room because people can't do anything by themselves.

What do families want to achieve by bringing the whole lot in?

I don't think you can get an x ray outside a hospital in the uk.

Yes, our local minor injuries unit will send patients to the x ray department - it’s in a day hospital.

Our local minor injuries unit do x rays. I was referred to them several years ago to have an x ray

Ours does too but the minor injuries clinic is in a hospital.

We often had 5+ people attend with one small pet at the small veterinary clinic that I once worked in. You often thought you’d be there for a long evening but by the time that the third pet was treated, everyone had gone home.

Yes I agree. I’m forever having to pick out relatives to give up a chair in A&E for a patient. If you make a general announcement, people just look at the floor.

I agree one person is enough and not everyone needs someone with them, ie a minor injury.

But as someone on the receiving end of a being given a cancer diagnosis alone when I assumed everything was fine due to repeated appointments being postponed, this was such a shock I wasn’t in a fit state to drive myself home nor ask the questions I needed to. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

Exactly what I said upthread - why make things more difficult for the hospital staff by giving them the responsibility of getting all these extra people to stand up?

A&E waits can easily be upwards of 4 hours - who is going to agree to stand up for that long?As if staff are not all already facing abuse from people in A&E without having to sort that out !

And even if these friends/relatives did agree to stand for 4-30 hours (these are the length of times I’ve been in a&E this year) it’s still not great if they are all standing around crowding the area. Yes a&es are germy and full of people coughing and carrying viruses etc but let’s not add to it unnecessarily.

Surely it’s better if 4 or 5 adults to accompany one patient just don’t all come in the first place. 1-2 adults accompanying a patient should be enough.

Another thing- what are the chances of picking some virus (cold, S&D) from these excessive numbers of people or the excessive numbers get the virus?’

If people think that they are achieving something from attending en mass- they are wrong