"Concerning advice."

My mum attended an urgent breast assessment for cancer today at Gartnavel Hospital - as you can imagine, this has been a very worrying time for my family and my mum, who has a close family history of breast cancer. 

My mum has been unwell for several weeks since developing an infection in her breast, and I communicated this to the breast care nurse within the outpatients department- who told us that if my mum had loose stools, she should not have attended this appointment or go to hospital at all as there’s people on chemotherapy here with no immune systems. Is it really appropriate to make an already unwell woman, who’s concerned about having breast cancer feel guilty for attending an urgent appointment? Is this how we treat patients in our NHS? 

I am an experienced clinical practitioner myself, and I am well aware of the risks of infective diarrhoea, but to suggest that people who have any level of loose stools are not to attend hospital for assessment or treatment, is bewildering and a deeply concerning narrative to tell the general public. 

The attitude following the nurse finding out my mum has been unwell, made an already distressing time even worse. I am so disappointed.