Going into hospital for appointments how to prep?

[BloomedAgain]

I'm shielding but over last few days my health condition has worsened dramatically and it looks like I'll have to go in at least for a day and maybe scans. Can't believe this is happening as I've been so careful with keeping my health stable and haven't been out since before start of lockdown.
What is likely to happen re appointments and scans? What are patients wearing in hospital in terms of protection? I have gloves and a basic mask and a small bottle of hand sanitizer.

You won't need gloves, they'll supply masks. Just make sure you keep one on and don't fiddle with it

I had to go have an eye scan and a few tests last week. You have to wear a mask at all times, use hand sanitiser anytime you change areas of the hospital and you will have your temp checked in every area also. They provide the hand sanitiser and masks if you don’t have them.

My hospital has separated seating, so you’re all 2m apart, and everyone was wearing a mask. It felt really safe tbh. Everything is cleaned in between use.

You will need to wear a mask, they have some if you don't turn up with one. Hospitals are much emptier than normal and quite a safe place now I think, and I hope you manage to get stabilised and home again very soon

If you’re going to a specific hospital, they might have some information on their website.

I’m not shielding but am going to hospital soon for a few hours of tests. My department has some info online eg about leaving gaps between patients.

Can you ring and talk to them? You should be able to reach a department secretary and it would be totally reasonable to ask how they’ll protect you.

Thanks. What happens at the hospital re appointments when you get there? Do you have a strictly allotted time so walk in/walk out with no waiting?

Also @TeddyIsaHe mentioned separate seating, but my bit are only allowing one person in at a time.

Thanks everyone. Yes I'll be speaking to them today to discuss next steps. I can't find much info on their site. Just waiting for everything to open up now.

Don't stress about it - they will have it all in hand. I was in a and e earlier this week and it was all very calm and organised! They will give you a mask and sanitiser.
Just bear in mind that they won't allow anyone in with you.
They'll likely test you for the virus too.
There was a stat on the news yesterday about needing to be in contact with other 1700 people before you met someone with the virus which I found quite reassuring! My local hospital was also talking about removing the hot/cold distinction across the hospital as they're just not seeing significant community cases. So again a good sign

I think it is nerve wracking OP but needs to be done. I have a condition that requires medical intervention so have had to go in. It's worrying but was fine.

A much higher staff presence IMO, at entrances where you are diverted to where to wait, made to use hand gel (so cannot sure whether they would accept you wearing gloves throughout a visit) and given a mask if for some reason you have not brought your own.

It was obviously much quieter than usual and waiting areas are very spread out. I would not expect this to mean there is less wait though. I have waited quite a while each time as they have to fully wipe down the room and equipment very stringently between every patient so that adds more time than you might think, especially if appointments also run over.

For me it was a bit unsettling but very bearable and a case of mind over matter. The first and 2nd time I went in I did upset myself in the days after (thisnwazdueing the peak) thinking "is that it have I got it then, in a few days I'll get symptoms and regret ever going in". Was fine on all occasions, other than the shock of my own anxiety having not been anxious prior.

All the staff seem very confident and upbeat which does give a sense of normality. If they are there day in day out and managing then I do think we as patients can manage the same. Rejecting media treatment and making yourself iller benefits nobody and may mean you end up in a ward as an inpatient.

Best wishes OP, for your health and the visit. It will be fine

DD went in for an emergency operation last week. She arrived with a mask (unfortunately I only had a limited number). As she wasn't given one after her operation, I asked if all the nurses wore them, she told me no.

If it's just a visit for an hour or so, then your mask, sanitizer and gloves if you're happier with them will be fine. Anything longer, I'd take a few masks in.

Hope everything is ok and you're feeling a bit better soon.

My MIL is shielding and has had to go to hospital a few times during lockdown. At the hospital/dept she has been to, you go straight into the reception desk, where they are behind a screen, and then they send you back to your car and phone you when they are ready. She was then accompanied to the waiting area with no one else around and into the scanner, second time to the treatment room.
She has a consultant appointment in person this week (has had telephone appointments weekly with her team), and was told to expect the same

Thanks everyone. I had a chat with a consultant today but should know more in coming days about going in. You've all reassured me

Apologies to post a week on from the last post, but I read this thread last week when deciding whether to take my DC to hospital for a non-urgent outpatient appointment. I found the comments reassuring and agreed to the appointment and we went today.
It was absolutely awful. The staff are not wearing their masks properly, some not at all. They take them off constantly and pull them up and down their faces. The outpatient receptionist has a screen in front of her but it is open to the sides and she wasn't wearing her mask behind it.
The letter that the hospital sent with the outpatient appointment spoke of temperature checks - these did not happen.
Having self-isolated and not left the house since March except for daily exercise in the countryside I feel I have put myself at considerable risk and the hospital staff were not taking the situation seriously at all.
I am not bashing hospital staff in general. I have a close relative who works in intensive care and putting themselves at risk to treat coronavirus patients. But the outpatient staff were obviously unhappy at having to wear masks at all times and were just not bothering to an extent that would protect the patients in any meaningful way.

I should also add that despite the appointment letter advising me to not get there too early to reduce infection risk, we actually spent 1 hour in the waiting area for our appointment. Dozens of patients and staff walked through the area in that time, none of them wearing their masks properly. It all seemed like no-one was taking it seriously in practice, no matter what the theoretical precautions are.
I would say if it is just a non-urgent outpatient appointment, you really need to take the reassurances with a pinch of salt. In reality, it is too uncomfortable for the staff to wear their masks 100% of the time and unfortunately many are just wearing them loosely for show or not at all.

I blame myself. Who in their right mind goes to hospital for non-urgent outpatient appointment during a pandemic? I was thinking: it isn't getting any better, it will only be worse in September, so let's just get on with it now. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess it was the mask-wearing, hand-sanitising, temperature-checking safety that the appointment letter promised. I expect a lot of new cases will be caught within hospitals, and that is because the precautions are not being followed or enforced.
All I achieved today was enabling the consultant to cross one more name off the list of overdue appointments. it wasn't about the patient or their safety, but just being able to reduce the waiting list figures.

I've been shielding and have to go for bloods tomorrow for a check to allow the continued prescription of life enhancing drug. Do I want to go? No, my MH has been kicked to hell in last few weeks. But I'll wear a mask, take sanitizer, and try to have hope it'll be alright, and faith in my fellow citizens not being prats : photos and stories in media have made me baffled at people, but then i remember all the wonderful people I know and love, so thinking the prats are a statistical blip 😉unfortunately, it's all going to be risk assessing now, and if your health needs attention, it's balancing the risks.

I have to say my experience at outpatients appts has been completely different to @conveniencestore. Everyone was wearing their mask correctly. It was very quiet and seats were sanitised as soon as you got up from them.

@AnnaSW1 that's good news. There wasn't any seat sanitising at all either at the outpatients in the hospital today . Hopefully it is just one really bad hospital.
I just wanted to post because I took a great deal of reassurance from this post last week, but my experience was terrible. I wouldn't anyone vulnerable to be misled like I was.

Where do you live, what kind of facility was it you visited, convenience?

Also it is worth bearing in mind that many hands-on procedures and treatments and surgeries are not actually possible at the moment. So I went expecting the appointment to be useful because my DC does need a particularly hands-on procedure, but we were only told during the appointment that the procedure is not allowed by the hospital right now. I also heard another child being told that they needed an operation but the hospital is not allowing elective paediatric surgery right now, so they had to make another appointment for 3-6 months time. Presumably that family wished they had stayed at home and not exposed themselves to massive risk also.
I think because doctors and nurses are running a high risk serving the public in their jobs, they expect the public to take on a similar risk when turning up for appointments. But the problem is patients must only accept treatment after knowing the full facts and with some sort of informed consent in the process. By exposing patients to unnecessary risk but not highlighting this to them in advance, the option of attending the appointment with some kind of informed consent has been removed from the patient and their family.

@llijkk live in the SW, it was a very large general hospital. It was not an urgent appointment (which is why I really wish I hadn't gone and exposed myself and DC to such lax health protection and exposed us to the virus without even receiving the treatment that DC needed), but I had been led to believe that these safety precautions were being taken, but they were not being taken at all. The only precaution being given the slightest lip-service was half-heated and partial mask wearing. No temperature checks on arrival. No seat sanitising in waiting area. I saw multiple people sitting on the same seat within the space of a few minutes-hours. There was a hand sanitising station in the waiting area - not one person used it (some patients had brought their own and used this, but no staff used the hospital one).

@user1498647726 I hope you get staff like my relative who works in intensive care who would never behave like these people did today. Just enforcing the patients wearing their mask would have helped, but one woman took her mask off for 10 mins while filling in a form and none of the multiple staff who walked past told her to put it back on. The receptionist had her mask off for half of the one hour I spent in the waiting room and no-one questioned that.

My relative says the hospital is known to be crap. The stupidest thing is there are 2 general hospitals in my county. One was designed the 'safe' hospital and one was designated the 'covid' hospital, but they are running all the outpatient appointments at the 'covid' hospital and not the 'safe' hospital.

All the good things mentioned up thread were missing. There was no sitting in the car waiting for your time. It was lots of patients and staff in a busy waiting area. There was no temperature checking or covid swab testing - both mentioned upthread. The seating was not 2 m apart. Some seats were taped off individually or had a notice on, but at most this left a 1m gap between patients. No seat sanitising.
I and my DC have been left very upset by it and very worried that we will get the virus. Obviously I should be reporting these problems, but it does not seem hospital management is particularly interested in anything except clearing overdue appointments. Also complaining about outpatients appointments tends to mean dealing with a pissed off consultant next time. So I guess I won't be reporting the problems and just rant here instead.

Just back from getting bloods done, so thought would say how it went:went really well, all staff wearing masks(receptionist was fiddling with it, but behind a screen, and I wouldn't fancy wearing it all day, everyday, without touching.) seating all distanced, good signage, hand gel, and anyone going in without a mask was firmly, but politely, told they had to put one on (not there fault one guy decided to pull it down from his nose). Overall, don't think could have gone better.

Glad to hear it is not bad everywhere. I do sympathise with staff having to wear a mask continuously for hours on end, especially non-clinical staff who may feel that they did not sign up for those kind of working conditions, but that is what is required to protect patients and other staff members.