To think there’s no need for tv’s on hospital wards

I'm not persuaded the patient is the one who should have to exercise their right to peace and quiet. Why aren't the nurses dealing with the issue, the cleaner. With their post-graduate training and expertise, they must surely know that patients need peace and quiet to recover and that extends also to the night time cacophony of chatter and giggling that arises from the nurses station in the smallest and quietest hours. In my view if nurses want to be regarded as professionals, they must behave like professionals and keep the needs of the patients to the forefront.

I too have suffered from the noise they make.

Say no to the cleaner, very clearly. Next time say 'No, don't put it on. I don't like it and no one else has said they want it on'. If she argues or does it anyway, call a nurse and tell them you don't want it on and can they turn it off. You're patients, your wishes shouldn't just be ignored! But speak up and make them known.

Did he have football on on volume then on a ward with other patients? If so, that's selfish.

You’re all just muddling along on the ward. Just do what you need to do. Use headphones, don’t use headphones, use ear plugs, don’t use earplugs.
the point is there are things you can do to make your situation better.

I think there are some patients who are very poorly and need peace and quiet and others who have to be there but aren't ill who need something to combat boredom. I think the first group should get priority.

The last couple of times I was an inpatient, the TV helped save my sanity.

If they need the TV they can put headphones on rather than disturb everyone else on the bay.

Why do those wanting TV or radio or music noise trump those not wanting in?

if they need the tv on then I’d argue is preferable to everyone hearing someone crying in pain.
just put ear plugs in or wear one of those bands if you don’t like it.
we all managed to get by with different devices.

I recently stayed 3 weeks in hospital, in side rooms there's a tv, I was in one for almost 2 weeks but so ill I wasn't up to watching it. I then got transferred to a ward and there was no tv at all. It makes sense to keep tvs out of wards because the ward was noisy enough without having a tv on. So not all hospitals have tvs in wards which is a good thing imo. I read and used my phone also the nurses gave colouring pens, craft materials and pictures to colour if anyone wanted to do that. So it wasn't too boring.

I very much agree with this.

I agree with you when the statement refers to your situation and/or similar, but not totally in general across the hospital.
I can very much sympathise with you in your situation feeling as unwell and vulnerable as you are, especially as the other patients are in so much pain also and probably want peace and quiet also.
Insensitive given the nurses are making decisions about the impressionable environment without considering your needs, and moreso given, as you say the fact that people have their own personal devices.
Not fair.

Agreed, was recently in hospital for a few days and the TV's, aside for ordering food might as well have not been there. Everyone was happier on phones and tablets.

There have been threads in the past on here about the noise in hospitals at night. It’s torture

YABU.

The issue isn't the telly it's the cleaner.

Many people, particularly the elderly don't have a device, or can find it hard to hold one.

I'm surprised there is a TV at all. I haven't seen one in a hospital ward for a long time. Usually the noise problem is from visitors and sometimes nurses chatting.

Obviously only patients should be choosing to have the TV on, not staff.

I was stuck in bed and fastened to an antibiotic drip for several days once (infected hand injury), and being trapped on that ward with absolutely nothing to do was mind-numbingly dull. I could have screamed with frustration at the sheer desperate boredom of it all, and a bit of light relief during the day would have helped a lot.

Not everyone has personal devices, for a person with no visitors the TV could be the only company/entertainment they have access to during their stay.

Which is all well and good in most modern hospital settings where patients are in individual rooms. It could also be on shared wards via local screen and headphones.

In the NHS rooms are still shared as the norm so its not appropriate to force TV or loud music on patients who do not want it. In this case its not even a patient turning on the noise - its one of the ancillary staff deciding they want the TV on and leaving it when they move to the next bay, despite the patients not wishing for this.

That is disrespectful to the patients who are stuck there, and bloody rude frankly.

There is a need for tv in hospital. Many patients need them as a distraction from pain.
you can watch your own Netflix, Disney etc accounts on some and connect headphones.
depends entirely on the patient.

Hospital wards are hell on Earth. They should use them for torturing criminals!

The OP isn't on a frailty ward and even if your DF would've loved a TV, who's to say that the other three people in his room would agree, or that they would've wanted to watch what your DF wanted to watch? The thought of having Eastenders, the Queen's funeral or something inane like BGT blaring away and not being able to turn it off is awful. You're just stuck when you're in hospital, ill and at the mercy of everyone and everything from your fellow roommates to the nurses, doctors, cleaners, everyone else's (generally awful) visitors and all the bleeping and blaring of alarms, phones and other people's entertainment choices. How anyone is supposed to get well I don't know.

The TV on my ward doesn't work thank fuck. The last time I was in having had a stroke it was daybreak to day end coverage of the Queen's funeral. At top volume. Everyone in the NHS is either hard of hearing and doesn't listen anyway.

What I have now is the ignorance of people with iPads and no headphones. Maybe it's all geared to get us to discharge ourselves.

My dad would've given his right arm for a TV on the ward.

You say 'most people have their own devices' but not on the frailty wards they don't - where the occupants generally seem to be aged between 70 and 100.

I agree with the others, this is a problem with the cleaner.

Sounds like you’re in a four bedded bay with communal TV which can make it tricky if all the patients have different preferences!

Surely this is what personal devices and headphones are for? We can all have our own entertainment devices now, we are no longer reliant on one TV in the corner of the room. The NHS needs to move with the times and allow people to either access entertainment or be left in relative peace and quiet. There is no excuse for foisting a blaring TV on an entire roomful of people any more!!!