to expect hospital to accept delivery of flowers for my mum?

[chicaguapa]

My mum went into hospital yesterday for an operation so I ordered some flowers with Next to be delivered to the hospital today when I knew she would most need a morale boost. So I was surprised to get a phonecall from Next to say that the hospital had refused delivery as they don't accept them at the hospital. So the courier had to take them away.

I live in Manchester and she's in Chichester so I couldn't have taken them myself. I am so angry that I have phoned the local paper in Chichester and they are including the story in next week's edition!

Oh FFS this country! When I was in hospital in Belgium, the hospital provided flowers for the ward. And a fridge. And wine or beer with your meal.

That's it then, Belgium is where I will be ill in future. Sounds good.

Nurses and hospital staff have better things to do with their time - such as care for your mother - than take deliveries of flowers which can be an infection control problem and set of other pt's allergies.
The average 28 bedded ward has just 3 nurses and perhaps if lucky 2 healthcares to take care of all the pt's including the post op and dying ones, also deal deal with all those pt's relatives plus documentation, referrals to other services and make intake and discharge arrangements so i'm sure you'll agree flowers are pretty low on their priorities.
However i'm sure the local press and uninformed people with ridiculous perceptions of hospitals will have a field day with your complaint.

Lets not bother about the patients with respiratory problems then shall we since as the flowers look so nice.
Who do you think changes the water, washes the vases, looks for vases, throws away the dead flowers. Nurses and staff that should be concentrating on looking after patients.
If you want to look at pretty flowers then go to a garden centre - what on earth do you lot think hospitals are for?
I could be more sympathetic if these establishments were staffed adequately to cope with the work load but they are not. Flowers are so not a priority.

actually flowers can spread infections- Proteus, for one lives on the water in vases and can make people very ill- they're banned in burns units for that reason.

Shame to have wasted the flowers, but this is not a new thing. I remember years ago certain wards in our local hospital not allowing flowers.

Hmm, interesting this seems to be a story about the hospital in question, over a year ago...
So it's hardly a new thing.

The water which the flowers are in carries harmful bacteria. Flowers have been banned in some places such as Spain for some time for that reason.

Flowers sit on lockers, window ledges and other surfaces and often get in the way if someone needs urgent attention. Many people have reactions to pollen. Nurses or healthcare assistants often have to find vases and refresh the water in order to prevent stagnation.

Dirty hospitals have not been proved to increase infection risk the main culprit is washing hands.

I think hospitals should make their policy on this clear but that it is entirely reasonable to refuse flowers.

I do feel sorry that your are upset and the flowers were wasted, but I do think you should consider other patients in the hopital. My dad had emergency surgery last year and nearly died - that hospital did not allow flowers and were very careful about spreading infections and thankfully he recovered. I think patient safety is much more important - even if the risk is small - especially given the seriousness of some people's illnesses.

I don't think you're unreasonable for being upset, especially since having them delivered was expensive and you couldn't get there in person, but I agree with some of the other posters that you never know what the rules are in each hospital and that it's best to check first. My partner's grandmother was in hospital after a bad fall last year and we took her some flowers only to be told they weren't allowed. We weren't that annoyed, but found it rather odd that there's a flower stall/shop in the hospital car park that's probably making a fortune out of visitors who then have to take them back home with them. Still, I had a nice vase of flowers in the kitchen and we took her some more when she got home.

Sorry but for years and years and years flowers have been the gift along with grapes that you take along to the hospital so I don't blame the op at all fornot checking first I wouldn't have thought to either.
I totally agree what a rediculous sorld this has become, signing slips so that nursery can put on a plaster, no flowers in hospitals the list goes on and on really doesn't it.
And as for staff having better things to do with their time I know plenty of people who post get well cards and other things to hospitals for patients what is the difference? Nobody was asking a urse or a dr to go to reception and get them for her.

Your response to this was to phone the local newspaper?

I do agree with some of the posts along the lines of the fact that the country has become ridiculous eg the benches are 3 inches the wrong height and the bananas are too curved/not curved enough etc and it is true some people spend their time doing very bizarre things like measuring this kind of thing.

However, we need to do absolutely everything we can to control hospital infections. Even if it saved just one life - that is someone's daughter/son/mother/father etc and it would be worth it.

I've never really had occasion to either wonder about the health risks posed by flowers, or been in a position where I've been thinking of taking them in.

However, was recently in Addenbrookes in Cambridge (twice) and amongst their foyer shops (which includes a "fast food" court complete with Burger King, a "pie" shop & similar) is a well stocked florist. Now I can just about accept the rather hypocritical (some might say) idea of a hospital playing host to Burger King (which is hardly healthy) if you use the argument that visitors may want to eat, but I don't expect the florist is there so the same visitors can pick themselves up a posy on their way home do you ?

In fact, I'm pretty sure that during both stays (on a general surgery ward) other patients had flowers.

If this is the case in Addenbrookes, how come their flowers aren't an infection risk, but at other hospitals (specialist care wards excluded) they are considered to be so ?

I think YABU - you should have checked with the hopsital first that it was okay to send something along. This is hayfever season and other patients may suffer allergies that could hamper their recovery.

I hope your mum gets better soon. Can you re-arrange the delivery for another date for when she is back at home?

adath, the differences are clear a) flowers can be dangerous to some patients (and we don't know what sort of ward the Op's mother was on), b)there is a world of difference between handing over a few cards, and having to find a vase, fill it, balance it on a locker or one of those bed-tables, cahnge the water when it gets smelly/ low, wipe up after someone has knocked it over....

In the "old days" each ward used to have a clerk whose duties would include sorting and distributing mail, and there would be enough nurses/ auxiliaries around to help with flowers etc. These days, even without the potential infection risk, staff are short- would you rather a nurse handed out the drugs, or arranged the flowers?

And, as for the argument that we've been doing it for years....well it is only recently that visitors have been asked to use alcohol rub- do you think that that is wrong as well?

Plants are sometimes more acceptable where flowers are not but tbh, we've had so many occasions when a member of my family has been in hospital and have carried a bug out with them, that we routinely bin anything that has been in hospital with them with the exception of pyjmamas etc (which are changed daily and washed on 60c). It's so easy to pick up an infection in hospital. Flowers although pretty to look at just add to the risk especially as they're often taken home with the patients.

What a shame and how irritating. Don't think it is unreasonable not to realise hospital has banned flowers - they are one of the things that springs to mind when you are visiting someone in hospital.

Unfortunately my MIL is in a hospital with the same policy atm.

Thing is, I get all the inconvenience for the staff thing, and special requirements on eg. transplant wards, but flowers are also A Good Thing; the environment has a very powerful impact on recovery. Hospitals are often quite frightening/dreary places to be and just having something that is attractive to look at can be very helpful. Plus it is an obvious, visual reminder to patients that people are thinking of them and care about them.

I'm an infection control nurse although I haven't worked on the wards for a while. When I was nursing flowers were certanly not allowed on certain wards, itu haematology units, high risk patients in other words. I'm not surprised they are banned completlely in some hospitals to be honset. The water they sit in is the biggest problem - pseudomonas being one the the worst bugs.

Yes they do look nice but they unfortunately get in the way, aren't maintained and carry increased risk to patients.

I'm sorry you weren't able to have your bunch delivered, I can understand how frustraing that must be living so far away from your mum but I can also understand why the policy has come in.

Message withdrawn

I really didn't know that flowers were not allowed. I can see the logic I suppse but what a shame. Last time anyone i knew was in hospital she had loads of flowers but it was about 13 years ago and it was private so probably things have changed.

Just out of interest what should you give? Is fruit OK?

V. v annoying they didn't advertise it much so you went and wasted your money, on the other hand she may stand a better chance of survival in out Third World hospitals without extra risks from flowers etc. I think you should take it in your stride and learn for next time, in the knowledge they have your mum in their best interests

Nobody said anything about gel hand rub being wrong but it is only in recent years that this has become necessary why are things going so badly wrong that our hospitals are no riddled with MRSA etc. and why suddenly after so many years are flowers a health risk, a risk which has never actually been proven concretely I might add.
I am sorry Tissy that you felt the need to use such a patronising tone to my post and the difference may be clear to you but believe it or not I am a pretty well educated intelligent person and the differences are not clear to me.