Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Hospital bed curtains

279 replies

CurtainsAllowed · 14/06/2018 08:59

Is it frowned upon to keep them shut?

Just had surgery, was in a LOT of pain (thankfully being managed now) and I am constantly being asked if I want my curtains around my bed opened.

I feel and look horrendous and am absolutely not ready to be having a chat with anyone else on the ward.
I just want to be left alone

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
EnlightenedOwl · 14/06/2018 21:34

Sadly this one still did. April 2018
my experience in the private hospital was i was "not left alone for hours" someone was constantly in/out. Not great to be in hospital but given it was gynae surgery having privacy was a godsend.

reallybadidea · 14/06/2018 22:13

Amazing enlightened. Not one nhs hospital I have worked in in the last 15 years had those old gowns.

Huh? Are we all talking about the same thing? Because I've worked in 20+ hospitals in the past year and they've all had the same back-opening gowns that do indeed gape if not tied properly.

Freaklikemeee · 14/06/2018 22:24

And that feeling a complete lack of dignity is a contributing factor to making PTSD more likely?

For fuck's sake yourself. Medical people are trying to cure your disease, to help you stay alive. If you choose to fixate on the perceived "lack of dignity" that is down to you. There's nothing dignified whatsoever about having a tumour invade your body and I'd rather not pretend that there is.

Freaklikemeee · 14/06/2018 22:30

NO ONE should feel they have to give up their dignity, privacy and respect just because they are seriously ill.

Disease will take your dignity and privacy away and you have no say in it. I hope you never have to experience that.

Scoopofchaff · 14/06/2018 22:45

Freaklikemee two wrongs don't make a right. If someone is suffering indignity and loss of privacy owing to a serious illness, how does it possibly help when they also find that replicated on their hospital ward?

BackToTheFuschia7 · 14/06/2018 23:13

Freaklikemeee Your attitude has been horrible on this thread. Thank goodness maintaining dignity is engrained in how healthcare should be delivered. (The fact that it isn’t always present is another matter.) You are the one with strange ‘perceptions’ on the importance of dignity.

Even during an anaphylactic shock I was aware of what was going on around me and wanted my privacy and dignity maintained.

siwel123 · 14/06/2018 23:17

Regardless of your condition you should still be treated with dignity and privacy.

Gruffalina72 · 14/06/2018 23:31

You can keep them closed if you want. You're not required to open them. I really struggled being on a ward and the sister came to me to talk about how to help make it easier. She suggested closing them and told me I could keep them that way if it helped me.

So every time anybody asked me if I wanted them open I said no, and if anyone left them open I either closed them or asked someone to.

If you were in a side room nobody would have eyes on you constantly. That's what regular obs are for. Unless you have been told there is a specific, legitimate reason for them to be open.

That said, I've also spent time in resus. They kept the curtains closed the whole time too. So I don't buy needing a line of sight on you.

MySadSadStory · 14/06/2018 23:55

If that's the mentality then something has to be done about these ridiculous visiting hours and hordes of people turning up to visit and seriously compromising patients' safety (the example of someone using a gas burner in a ward) and infection control.

The gas burner is bonkers, I'm astonished the ward sister wasn't straight in there chucking them out.

My son is treated in the oncology unit and they don't have restricted visiting hours. Loads of the kids there including my son are neutropenic, if unrestricted visiting was an infection control issue I can't imagine that the children's oncology unit would allow it.

OP, if you're in the bed closest to the window and you're blocking light to the bed next to you, it's generally considered bad form to keep the curtains shut, though this isn't a set in stone convention. If you know that the patient in that bed is particularly poorly you cut them some slack and put up.

However if you can hear the father of the child in the next bed playing on his xbox and you know the only reason he's shut the curtains is to make the room darker then that's really selfish horrible behaviour.

Re. bed bay's vs cubicles. There are pro's and con's to both. You get more sleep in a cubicle, more space to spread your crap out, your own bathroom. However it can be quite isolating especially if you're in there for weeks and weeks. I've only been in hospital for any length of time as a parent of a patient. On balance I think I prefer the bay's more just because it's nice to talk to other parents, and if my son is feeling well enough he can play with the other kids on the ward. It's the children's oncology ward so there's loads of people from charities who come in to do stuff with the kids and they miss out on a lot of stuff if they're barriered in the cubicles.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:02

'Disease will take your dignity and privacy away and you have no say in it. I hope you never have to experience that.'

Now you're just being goady, and insulting and pretty sick.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:12

I sat and watched my 9-year-old daughter die by inches. Day after day. Her dignity, her privacy, respect for her person were paramount and thankfully, by the staff, always considered. If they hadn't been, I'd have been the first to complain, to secure what she and any human being deserve. One does not stop being a human being worth of dignity, privacy and respect just because one is seriously ill or even dying.

'My son is treated in the oncology unit and they don't have restricted visiting hours. Loads of the kids there including my son are neutropenic, if unrestricted visiting was an infection control issue I can't imagine that the children's oncology unit would allow it.'

They shouldn't, and that's a real source of neglect on their part, it's astonishing that that is allowed. Where is this? My daughter was always in a private room during her treatment once she became neutropaenic, even in ICU following her allogenic stem cell transplant. Strict iso protocol was maintained even then.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:18

Unrestricted visiting hours were allocated to the child's carer(s) in the onco unit in Glasgow, indeed, a parent or carer slept in the room with the neutropaenic child, I did, but such children were not allowed to be in a ward or communal unit, even if they had to be in another unit besides the onco one, following surgery or in PICU. The 'old' unit in the 'old' Yorkhill in Glasgow had only two communal in-patient rooms, and both were only two bays. Now they are all single rooms with en-suite bathroom. Day unit has bays, but that's just that, a day unit.

I'm really curious about who is allowing neutropaenic children undergoing chemo/radiotherapy to be in a ward setting. That really needs reported.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:23

Where is the hospital that is allowing neutropaenic children with cancer to be in ward settings? That's really serious and needs to be reported.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:34

When my daughter had to go to ICU, she was neutropaenic, following allogenic stem cell transplant. She went straight into a side room. We were allowed to stay as much as wanted, but she was not put in the bays, because she was at grave risk of infection. The nurses, the doctors, any staff adhered to strict isolation protocol. There's a sink in the vestibule between the main door and door to the room, and anyone entering had to wash hands to elbow in Hibi scrub and gown up. Standard protocol in strict iso.

Pseudomonas, from which my daughter died, is mostly a hospital-acquired infection, and a lot of times it may be nigh on unavoidable in severely immuno-compromised patients. But to not put isolation procedures in place in such settings is shocking.

Motoko · 15/06/2018 00:37

The last time I was in, I was going through chemo and had a urine infection, yet I was in a massive ward.
But when my MIL was in hospital after she broke her leg, and she came down with a urine infection, they put her in a side room to keep her isolated.

I don't know why they isolated her, but not me, even though I was immunosuppressed.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:38

On top of all that, if a child have to have a procedure done whilst in the ICU bays, all visitors were kicked out so privacy and dignity and respect could be conserved for the patient, even in emergencies, which such procedures often were, lockdown meant you had to get out if you were in the bays.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:43

'It's the children's oncology ward so there's loads of people from charities who come in to do stuff with the kids and they miss out on a lot of stuff if they're barriered in the cubicles.'

They can and do come to cubicles. If the child is in strict iso, then they can't go out. But they don't miss out if they are in side rooms. Even in strict iso, the clown doctors came to the second door in her double-roomed door, to perform for her. When she was well enough she was allowed to go the playroom, out for arts and crafts, to the Medicinema.

She was not permitted out until her counts rose. Par for the course. Those who were undergoing radiotherapy were also in double doored rooms for 48 hours following a treatment.

expatinscotland · 15/06/2018 00:46

She even spent her last Christmas in strict iso. My husband brought her gifts in, in their packaging, and the nurses and I worked together to wipe them down. He also brought in wrapping paper and sellotape still in their packaging, so we could wrap gifts for her. Scissors were sterlised to cut the paper. Then we gowned up and put the presents in her room.

Ollivander84 · 15/06/2018 01:25

expat - I am permanently neutropenic (fun!) and they gave me a side room instantly for my spinal surgery. My count is around 0.3 without my injections. I said the word neutropenia and they were on it!

A&E I usually tell them if I want to. Doctors practically threw me out the door when some idiot came in with a chicken pox child and didn't tell anyone for half an hour Hmm

Freaklikemeee · 15/06/2018 01:50

Now you're just being goady, and insulting and pretty sick.

Uh huhh. Well done for missing the point once again.

I'm going to bow out of this conversation now, but if the biggest thing any of you ever have to worry about is your bum sticking out of the back of a hospital gown, then you will be very lucky indeed.

WalkingOnAFlashlightBeam · 15/06/2018 07:11

I'm going to bow out of this conversation now

Don’t let the ward doors hit you on your gown-exposed bare arse on the way out 🙋🏻‍♀️

Footballmumofthefuture · 15/06/2018 07:17

On my ward you can have them shut. I always ask because I appreciate privacy is desired by all patients. However after surgery we like to observe.

That doesn't mean you can't, we can keep checking if you feel that shit.

I can sympathise with you as I have been on both sides and they allowed me to have them shut on ICU.

siwel123 · 15/06/2018 07:21

Or maybe while suffering a terrible illness they also worry about dignity? Wow now that's shocking @freak

LakieLady · 15/06/2018 07:26

If it's so much easier for nurses why are private hospitals all single rooms? If it's genuinely for a health reason then they wouldn't do it in private hospitals as it would be a safety issue (I'm not talking about hdu or icu).

I was very unwell after having (NHS) surgery in a private hospital, and the nurse on night duty came and sat in my room to do her paperwork so she could keep an eye on me.

I was very grateful for that at the time, but it struck that in an NHS hospital, where staff are responsible for a lot more patients, they probably wouldn't have been able to do that.

Scoopofchaff · 15/06/2018 07:37

Freaklikemee it is you who has missed the point entirely.

The point being that many of us - Expat more than most - HAVE had a lot more to worry about than a bum sticking out of a hospital gown. And yet we still wanted our (now deceased) relatives to be treated with dignity. And yet you still continue with that goady line? Are you 12 ok something?