Since when did playing music through speakers be OK on a hospital ward?

Those in charge should be dealing with the issue. Patients need a calm quiet space to recover from illness. Not a ruddy nightclub.
Have they not heard of earphones?
Once again its seems the rights of those who wish to do what ever they want trump the rights of the majority who don't want to listen to someone else's awful choice of music.
I would be making a complaint to the hospital Trust. It's not acceptable

People are incredibly selfish

The staff are overworked, underpaid and are not trained to deal with this shit.

Hell really is other people OP. I put up with it on public transport (even though I agree it's completely and utterly unacceptable) because I don't want to get into a confrontation that could escalate dangerously, but there's no way I would put up with it in hospital. I would complain to the staff and keep complaining until it's dealt with. I get it, the staff are run ragged, BUT they should be able to have some authority and frankly so I guess it's who's going to be the lesser of two evils - the arsehole entitled selfish patients / their selfish visitors, or you. (Obviously not suggesting you be rude and sure you won't be, but it really is unacceptable and I don't see why your wife should have to put up with that whilst she's trying to recover just because the staff are too stretched). Often the reasonable have to put up and shut up (because they're reasonable) and the unreasonable people therefore continue to get away with it.

Good luck OP, and more importantly good luck with your wife's recovery.

It used to be socially unacceptable in the UK

After brain surgery noise is fucking horrific. I get some old people don’t own headphones but you should not be allowed to use a bedside radio or tv without them. Anywhere. The only place a tv should be on is in a day room. I had someone put the radio on and then leave it in and go for a walk. It stopped me wanting to go back for more treatment as it was horrible.

No I imagine the TV and radio noise couldn’t be heard over the three of you chatting long into the night like schoolgirls.

No help with hospitals, etc., but on a train in UK, unless you have written permission it's illegal.

Railway Byelaw 7 says (see Railway Byelaws):
"... except with written permission from an operator no person on the railway shall, to the annoyance of any person:
... use any instrument, article or equipment for the production or reproduction of sound
... a person shall have the written permission referred to ... with him when undertaking the activities referred to ... and shall hand it over for inspection when asked by an authorised person."

(In a hospital ward, if a polite request were rebuffed, I might become so confused my elderly arthritic limbs could lead me to stumble and fall, accidentally smashing the music player. Just saying.)

Yes some people are awful. Not a majority, but they do affect others disproportionately. If you think it's OK to inflict your choice of music on others, think again: doing so makes you a bad person. (I know, yes, most bad people don't care about being bad ...)

I'm really not confrontational in normal every day life, but I think I would be here. Even if they ultimately ignored it I would have to publicly say my bit and spell out how selfish immature and ridiculous they are being. I despair of people now op and feel for you and your wife.

I know some people don't like headphones or ear plugs ( I know I don't) but I would just put the phone or device on silent or not watch anything if I were in hospital.
Common courtesy and manners are lacking in public places and areas / transport etc all round these days.
Hospitals used to have tv rooms years ago
I know it's a thing of the past , but it helped with the boredom I think.
Phones and I pads or whatever can be a menace.

Also you don’t know hell until your in a children’s A and E and there are 15 phones all playing cocomelon.

headphones are NOT expensive!

Found this aswell. Mum was on neurology ward after pretty serious surgery around Christmas. Some guy was playing the radio down the hall on full volume with heavy metal playing. Asked the nurses to turn it down and they said "well we don't want to upset him" 🙄😡

Dnt understand this in public places either. Where common curtsey or just decency. I'm always aware of those around me but some people seem oblivious.

I was visiting a relative and the radio on the window sill was on with some terrible local station droning on about football close to me and her , so I switched it off.
The nurse came over and switched it back on again. Nobody was listening to it and my relative was fed up with it too. She gave me daggers
She wasn't listening to it herself.

We really need a push as a society to make this hugely socially unacceptable.

It should be as frowned upon as pulling your pants down and shitting on the pavement.

Same here.

Just spend 24 hours in a side room on A & E and then 3 days in a ward . It was sheer hell .

This is my worst nightmare. I actually fear ever needing a hospital stay for this reason. I could not cope with the sheer selfishness of other people on a ward.

Just over a year ago I had a 9 hour operation for cancer - got put on the ward and was kept awake half the night by another patient playing a programme on her laptop without headphones. I spoke to a nurse who said they wouldn't ask her to keep the noise down in case she kicked off. I asked her if she wanted to borrow my headphones but she just ignored me.
I worked as a HCA on similar wards in the 1980s and there's no way that would have been allowed to happen.

Also had this on a labour ward, so many people thought it was acceptable to sit watching football/films/youtube on full blast on their phone. Don’t even get me started on the people having loud phone calls on the postnatal ward in the middle of the night! Selfish twats the lot of them

Is forgotten how awful other peoples music is until recently when I sat in my car in a car park waiting to pick my son up and a man parked near me and played 'his' taste in music with the windows open.

It wasn't blasting out but loud enough for anyone parked near him go near and of course most cars were empty so it was really just me and him.

After three 'songs' I was ready to get out and smash his windscreen with a baseball bat.

It's awful that it's allowed in a hospital, so incredibly selfish.

I would ask first of all that the person gets headphones and if they persist I would complain right to the top at the hospital as a hospital should be a place where everyone can recuperate without noise.

No one gives a shit in hospital, even the staff laugh and shout all night when the patients are trying to sleep. It's a joke

That's awful. Awful for you both.

Why do people think their choice in music is so superior that everyone has to listen - reminds me of the boom boom boom coming out of teenagers cars - so corny

Every ward I've worked on have earphones sent up from hospedia but there's always those who "can't tolerate them" for some spurious reasons. People just don't care, several patients huddled around a bed with the tv on full volume is seen as acceptable and normal, some of the staff are no better.

Absolutely. When I had my last child the nurses were so loud and rowdy in the middle of the night. DH asked them to quiet down, they'd apologize, an hour later woken up again by the cackling and yelling back and forth by the staff about "weekend plans"

God, I had this while in the maternity ward. Along with people speaking on the phone on loud speaker!? So selfish. Mostly uneducated twats.