The amount of time that Mum, Callum, and Jude spend waiting for imaging and doctors highlights that this isn’t an efficient, well-funded hospital—the noughts presumably have poorer hospitals than the Crosses do. And again, Mum finds herself in an impossible position: she can’t support her family if she doesn’t work, but she can’t work for a short period if she wants to stay employed for the long term. This speaks to how desperate the McGregors’ finances are.