Why are people so dim?!

[Butterbear86]

I’ve just had to attend out of hours - it really couldn’t wait - and on arrival minor injuries was lockdown for deep cleaning because someone had just shown up with flu like symptoms after returning from Italy in the last week or so. I mean there are signs outside the hospital. Inside the hospital. Everywhere.
So they’d closed it and moved everyone up from MI to OOH - and they had to take details from people who had been sat in the waiting area with him because if he has it they’ve also been potentially exposed. Then they announced they were also closing OOH because staff from MI had been up and down the corridors so they were going to deep clean the whole lot.

This is why we are done for. People cannot follow advice to stay area and go and sit in busy waiting rooms, ignoring signs expressly telling them not to do precisely that.

Agree Shiny it's a scary thought for asthmatics as we don't need to imagine it.

Becca19962014 I didn't know that (about cuts to services in mid Wales)- that is shocking.

Goaty, you do know that people can be functionally illiterate for reasons other than “stupidity”.

Becca so if you don’t drive or don’t have a car, are you supposed to just die at home? I’ve had flu, it came on pretty quickly. I wouldn’t want to be driving anywhere. And what about your car. Is it supposed to sit outside the hospital for two weeks? Let’s hope no one else in your family needs it then.

Read this then - man claims 111 told him to go to A&E, where he waited.
He didn't have it, but he did have the flu and possibly infected others.

www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/suspected-coronavirus-patient-told-sit-17825081

Somewhere between five and nine million UK adults (depending on your source) are functionally illiterate. Stupity carries a huge cost for the rest of us. (Not least we still let them vote.)

You sound as though you are conflating illiteracy with stupidity

Unless you scour websites like this or actively search for advice, it's woeful. Without generalising some of the older generation are less likely to go online a lot, he probably just saw the headlines or news about Italy, which are often void of any useful information and didn't know what to do. Not excusing it, but did the signs give any advice on what to do other than call 111 (which is a pile of poo?). If the media calmed down for a minute it might portray a useful message.

Yes. Very badly hit by cuts and GP shortages as GP work is made harder by lack of secondary care. Those there are frankly are heroes.

There is a district hospital but not many services there anymore, there's a risk of it losing that status altogether, broken bones for example are only treated by dr now one day a week until April then it's once a month, most patients get shunted elsewhere now. No free transport either as its "too expensive" for the health board to pay, so it's now mostly paid by patient even those on benefits.

Since when has illiteracy meant stupidity?
Some of the most intelligent people are illiterate or close to.
Many illiterate people are smart and not panic buying toilet rolls.

tinkly probably. Oh and there's barely no parking at the hospital and it isn't free either.

The signs round here have mostly been defaced for not being bilingual (yes I know) but simply say if you have cold/flu symptoms go home, self isolate whilst awaiting a call back from 111. Which frankly is pot luck as there's only two centres covering Wales and they're run by the ambulance trust. You phone then about cold/flu you get told to go online and do the symptom checker. Which is crap as well and advises you phone 111.

OP I agree this is madness, why would someone do that?! My child came home from school with an injury and was in quite a lot of pain, normally I would have gone to MI or possibly even A&E but I decided it could be more dangerous to expose both DCs if people in the waiting room had Coronavirus. Feeling really guilty for not taking him tonight , though he is sleeping soundly & just hoping he's a lot better tomorrow as hoping it's muscular. I really hope so or we will have to brave A&E :(

It doesn’t matter if they are ‘stupid’. Yes, some people are although I prefer learning difficulties or similar. So we take the vote from them and we let them die? Lovely.

I really dislike the term "stupid" or "thick" to refer to intelligence/education level. (I have no problem with "stupid behaviour" meaning... just that!)
Not everybody had the same opportunities in life. Some are lucky just to have survived their childhoods, and were too busy worrying about their next meal or when the next beating was coming to be able to focus on literacy.

I know someone who just died in New Jersey from it. It really hits home just how serious it is.

There have always been dim people around, and some people do struggle with literacy, but the combination of selfish and dim is something that causes real issues in the situation we are currently facing. I have a lot of sympathy for people working on the frontline in the NHS, and those with health problems who are having difficulty getting the help they need. Sadly, some people have such a sense of entitlement about the NHS, that they will push for what they want, at the expense of others. Which is one reason why it might become necessary to charge for some things in future - the selfish people will only rein in their demands once they start being charged for various appointments/tests/etc. Also, it wouldn't harm to charge inpatients for their stay... a few pounds per night, to cover food and laundry costs. Obviously now is not the time to start this, but it might help to fund the service. Plus the health tourist situation has to be stopped - other countries find ways to prevent this stuff, we need to do the same.

under no circumstances should anyone go to the test centre without an appointment, and must (in capitals, underlined and in bold) drive themselves and only them to be in the car.

Do these people understand that some people can't drive?

It's interesting that on many threads on here you're told if you have flu you would not be able to move from your bed to pick up a £50 note, yet here we're told having flu symptoms would not impair your driving abilities!

People don't read notices. I am in a job where I have to try to get them to read notices, and I resort to all kinds of tricks. Adding obvious handwriting in a different colour sharpie, and signing it, seems to help, as people think there's a real human being behind the notice. Changing the notices often helps. But I have just put four large notices up in a particular location saying "please don't do X" and the second person to go to the location today instantly did x.

Talking of dim, Nadine Dorries has coronavirus - has been all around Parliament last week, and the gov have just announced that nothing will change - all carrying on as normal.

Madness.

It depends on the circumstances - anyone who has had respiratory distress knows how scary that is - you think you are going to die. You need oxygen. You try not to panic as that will make it worse.
You jump in a cab as it might be quicker than an ambulance.
You are not necessarily thinking straight as you cannot breathe and think you are going to die.
If any of you have been through this you would not be judging anyone so harshly who took themselves to A+E especially if, according to this patient, 111 told them to.

@Mulhollandmagoo My GP Surgery are still seeing patients? Perhaps it's just in certain areas

I’ve just had to attend out of hours - it really couldn’t wait

Oh the irony
So its OK for you to attend but not someone else

I dont know what country you're in but here (UK) there are no signs, or if there are, they have put there very recently and if they're anything like the ones I've seen pictures of online, they're tiny

Who told you this tale anyway? Some gossiping person in the waiting room?

AllTheseThingsThatIHaveNotDone

Exactly

^^Oh the irony
So its OK for you to at attend but not someone else

The difference is OP hasn't come back from Italy from flu like symptoms and contravened NHS advice.

The difference is OP hasn't come back from Italy from flu like symptoms and contravened NHS advice.

What NHS advice? They haven't given any advice. Where is it? I havent seen anything posted through my letterbox. Have you?

The way this is being handled is a disgrace. Apart from sing happy birthday and wash your hands, which I don't even think came from the NHS or the govenrment or local authorities.
THERE IS NO ADVICE