Our child developed severe incessant vomiting and diarrhoea in early March 2022, hence we rushed to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children at around 18:45 hrs. I am severely hearing impaired, and cannot hear through face masks.
Hence I wrote down a timeline and description of our child's symptoms to give to the medical personnel. I also wrote on the top of the sheet that I had prepared it as I am hearing impaired. I repeated this to the triage nurse verbally while handing over the paper. They barely glanced at it or heard me, and asked if I spoke English. I said it is my first language. They laughed and asked if it was just the accent then? I advised them that I was deaf.
They said, with a wink, that they saw in the waiting room that "someone" was sitting on the chair whilst I was on the floor with the baby, and that next time I should tell "someone" to sit on the floor and to let me sit on the chair.
I believe they meant my husband. The waiting room was only half full and there were plenty of empty chairs. I was sitting on the floor as it was approximately 8:00 pm and past the child's bedtime, and child wanted to lie down on my lap, as they were also completely exhausted from the vomiting and diarrhoea. The waiting area chairs are quite narrow and you cannot sit comfortably cross legged on them holding a primary school aged child across your lap. I think they made the assumption that as we are Asian, my husband was being a chauvinist and not permitting his wife to sit on a chair. It's ridiculous. I told them straight away why I was sitting on the floor, and that my husband is not a patriarchal person (I'd be the the first to call him out if that were the case).
It took us six hours to see a doctor. In my view, instead of wasting time trying to find oppressed women where there are none, it might be better if the staff directed their energies to provide proper healthcare.
Video of story in BSL
This is a translation by a BSL translator
Video of story in ISL
This is a translation by an ISL translator
"Staff making unfounded assumptions"
About: Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick children / Emergency Department Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick children Emergency Department BT12 6BA
Posted by Isagq84 (as ),
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