Hospital visiting all hours (please be kind 😂 )

BigBertha1

Well I'm an old fashion nurse who believes quality rest and sleep is essential to recovery so I would say a two hour visiting slot during the day and two in the evening is more than enough. Definitely two visitors to a bed, children and animals by special permission from the Charge Nurse/Ward Sister. This allows the nursing and medical staff a much better opportunity for good care during very testing times.

Can we put you in charge of the NHS?

I feel for anyone recovering in hospital. I had expressed my anxiety and depression about being in hospital before my major surgery and was put on an accelerated discharge program. 27 hours was quite enough for me from start to finish. Even the consultant agreed that hospital was no place for recovery.

MissAdventure

My daughter had to ask nurses to stop racing up and down the corridors, pushing each other in wheelchairs and an office chair when she was in hospital.

biglouis

All these accounts explain why some of us avoid hospitals like the plague and have to be dragged there.

Well, no-one wants to be admitted!!

But, the 2-persons per patient, and no kids running around is a MUST.

I didn't realise the rules had changed from that and must say it sounds dreadful, not at all good for sick patients needing peace and quiet.

Years ago when I had baby No. 2 I shared a room with a lovely young woman who'd had her first two babies in Italy (her DH was Italian). She said how horrendous it was over there, visitors allowed in all day long, whole families visiting at once, bringing in meals for their relative, the noise was dreadful.
She said how lovely it was in the British maternity home where there was peace and quiet with restricted visiting hours.

It sounds like Italy of 40+ years ago!

All these accounts explain why some of us avoid hospitals like the plague and have to be dragged there.

I believe she told them that.

My daughter had to ask nurses to stop racing up and down the corridors, pushing each other in wheelchairs and an office chair when she was in hospital

That’s dreadful behaviour MissAdventure

Doodle

Irrespective of how many visiting hours there are I think the most important thing would be to enforce the two visitors per bed rule. Hospitals should stick to it for the benefit of all.

I remember when the open visiting policy started many years ago. The hospital policy was still a limit of up to one hour visit during that time and strictly 2 per bed. It seems to have descended into chaos since then.

Now there is no privacy. Doctors pulling curtains round a bed to examine a patient or have a conversation while there are visitors huddled the other side of the curtain is just wrong.

Sadly, the staff can often be on the receiving end of aggression if they dare to challenge anyone and they just don’t have enough staff to cope . I witnessed a nurse politely ask 2 young male patients to lower their voices and “banter” as the patient a few beds away was dying. They reluctantly lowered their voices for a few mins and started again. The nurse had to leave what she was doing and came back and pointed out to them they were being very inconsiderate. The man (or I should say poor excuse for one) told her to eff off and stop picking on him. That’s the type of behaviour staff are up against on every shift.

It was in the middle of the night, by the way.

My daughter had to ask nurses to stop racing up and down the corridors, pushing each other in wheelchairs and an office chair when she was in hospital.

Irrespective of how many visiting hours there are I think the most important thing would be to enforce the two visitors per bed rule. Hospitals should stick to it for the benefit of all.

I’m sorry you feel differently Grams2five but I think a hospital stay is for treatment and rest, with the aim of getting the patient discharged and home asap.
On one of DH’s many admissions, the young chap in the next bed often had up to 10 of his mates around his bed for hours as a time (using all the chairs they could find) loudly recalling nights out, when they’d been blind drunk or off their faces! The nurses just tutted, while I felt ‘rules’ should have been better enforced.

I spent a week in hospital with a lady with a learning disability in the bed opposite me.

She would tell everyone "ahhhh, look at that beautiful woman - she is going to try and have a poo poo because she hasn't "been" for nearly a week"

I think the biggest change since I was a ward sister many years ago is the lack of respect and consideration for other people. Years ago visitors walked in quietly, sat by the bedside and spoke quietly to whoever they were visiting. We shouldn’t be able to hear conversations from several beds away because folk are too inconsiderate to lower their voices.

I recently spent a week in hospital with a close relative with a severe learning disability who would have been too distressed to be left alone. It seemed many of the men and their visitors had lost the ability to speak at a normal level. Even overnight there was no peace.

As well as the unavoidable noise from beeping monitors there were mobile phones ringing, patients chatting loudly on phones etc. Absolutely zero consideration for other patients who were ill and trying to sleep. After 7 nights of it my sanity was beginning to slip.

Primrose, that is what I like to read! These days when the NHS is on its last legs, it's time for ward managers as CAN manage. These strict efficient women and men are capable of controlling visitors and staff.

I spent a couple of weeks in hospital earlier in the year, initially in an HDU and then later on a ward, fortunately both were 4 bed rooms. Visiting hours were pretty flexible because it was almost impossible to park. My husband took at least half an hour to find a parking space and a friend who visited had to queue for over half an hour to get out and it was also very expensive. tbh visitors didn't bother me and because they seemed to come at different times it didn't make the place feel crowded. It was the constant noise at night and lights going on and off that bothered me most but I could be the cause of that as I had a couple of machines attached that beeped when they needed attention and the night staff were always rushed off their feet.

Many years ago my SIL became very ill while we were all on hols in Yorkshire. She ended up in Scarborough hospital. There was a very strict Sister in charge and she insisted all the women got plenty of rest. The morning was busy with Doctor’s rounds, treatments etc, then lunch.

As soon as lunch was over the ward was closed, curtains shut, everybody in bed and they were all encouraged to sleep for an hour or so before visiting time. My SIL said it was lovely and she looked forward to her quiet hour.

Jolly Jilly, As a former nurse in the days when when the nursing hierarchy was run on military lines as per Florence Nightingale, I'd welcome visitors such as you husband only iff the proposed visitor were vetted as if he were a temporary auxiliary worker.
I am liberal by nature, and we all must know the time has come for the NHS to rely partly on the help of volunteers.
However volunteer workers such as your husband must be controlled by efficient ward managers whose first duty is to their patients.

Some years ago I was in hospital, visiting was 2-4 and 6-8.00pm.
Unfortunately a lady in the next bed to me had visitors from late morning until the staff told them to leave at lights out.
One morning my consultant asked them all to leave as he was trying to examine me and their chairs were impinging on his space through the curtain.
They claimed not to be able to understand English and remained.
It was truly awful, I spent a week with the curtains drawn listening to them all talking, she would also have her television on whilst they were there.
I was desperate to get home.

It’s practicable to have set visiting hrs to give patients the rest they so need I agree with you Baggs

All visitors at all times time must be controlled by the ward manager.
It's inefficient to allow kids to run around, or to allow visitors to use patients' toilets. Number of visitors should be restricted to two per bed, at any one time. Visitors must not sit on patients'beds especially the bed of somebody unknown to them (as happened to me).I'm horrified that patients cannot rest and sleep properly because of visitor disturbance.

Ill patients are unable to insist on their rights, and the ward manager 's duty is to take care of sick people in her charge, and support their welfare at all times.

There is no excuse for such bad treatment as the OP received. Maybe better write to a national newspaper, a good one, and the producer of Panorama, and the local health authority, and the hospital manager, and your member of parliament. The OP has my full support for what it is worth.

The thought of being on display to all and sundry whilst feeling unwell enough to be in hospital is my idea of hell!!!
Bad enough for family and friends to see you like that, let alone lots of strangers at any time of the day.

Hospitals are noisy places even without visitors: machines beeping sometimes unnecessarily. I know this because I asked if a beepy one near me needed to be on recently and the answer was no. The nurse switched it off. I suppose if you’re working in a machine noisy environment all day you begin not to notice.

Well I'm an old fashion nurse who believes quality rest and sleep is essential to recovery so I would say a two hour visiting slot during the day and two in the evening is more than enough. Definitely two visitors to a bed, children and animals by special permission from the Charge Nurse/Ward Sister. This allows the nursing and medical staff a much better opportunity for good care during very testing times.