To think you should not use another patient's over-bed TV when in hospital?

[climbingquickly]

My friend was admitted to hospital for overnight monitoring. I went to fetch her things from home, in meantime she was moved to a ward. When I got to ward she was very upset and crying and 2 doctors were trying to sort out an argument between her and woman in next bed.

Friend said when she was wheeled onto ward at 11pm, the woman in next bed was using her over-bed tv/computer thing (each bed has one attached but can be moved to one side on an overhead lever, you have to buy a card to use them. Woman was apparently sitting on her own bed but had angled friend's TV so she could watch it.) Friend asked the woman to use her own TV as she wanted privacy. Woman responded by drawing cubicle curtains around the TV but refused to switch it off, said the previous woman in that bed had left money in the TV for her to use! Friend switched TV off herself and moved it back over her own bed. They had an argument. Nurses apparently ignored all this.

When I got to ward, friend and this woman were shouting at each other, as apparently when friend went to loo, woman in next bed took over her TV again. It turned into slanging match, friend called the woman a chav, and 2 doctors had to intervene.

AIBU to think nurses should never have allowed this to happen in first place? That one patient should not go into bed-space of another, move their TV and use it, even if previous patient left some money on it?

Again agree with straycatblue.

Once you start calling other patients chavs you lose any sympathy I may have had.

I've just reread the op, and nowhere does she say her friend approached the nurses quietly to ask them to sort this out which is all it would have taken.

Instead two women decided to have a "slanging match" (op's own words) and I stand corrected 2 doctors had to stop delivering patient care to sort out a row about a tv.

On reflection I stand by my original point, and would have thrown them both out until they learnt to behave like adults.

bow

Oh sure....because you're always at your best and most rational when you're feeling vulnerable and ill in hospital and some stranger decides to prevent you sleeping or closing the curtain....

UncleT

I suggest you read the original post again, the op's friend at no point was prevented from drawing the curtains around her????

But that is by the by.

I cannot stress this point too many times,
Other patients had their care and treatment stopped and delayed, why? because two grown women who were not that seriously unwell that they couldnt shout abuse at each other and get up and down repeatedly to move a tv backwards and forwards. (most seriously unwell people arent able to do that)

A mature way for the ops friend to deal with the situation would have been to ask nursing staff to mediate when they were free, rather start shouting abuse at the other patient.

How would you honestly feel if your relative didnt get their medication on time, or fell out the bed or had to lie in their own waste because nursing and medical staff were sorting out two arguing women who were both as bad as each other.

Drawing curtains 'round the TV' doesn't sound particularly fully closed to me... But in any event the noise and distraction would be enough to drive many in that situation potty.

Yes because that gap in the curtain you have to leave for the flex is massive.

Flex? They tend to be on pretty bulky, extendable, fixed arms.

UncleT

You still havent said if you would be happy if your relative was a patient on that ward and didnt get their medication on time, or fell out the bed or had to lie in their own waste because nursing and medical staff were sorting out two grown women arguing over a tv?

Obviously not - but then I'd also be very far from happy if some twat in the next bed was winding up my relative and preventing them from resting. One doesn't cancel out the other, FFS.