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!

Catsmother - dh was in Addenbrookes and flowers weren't allowed on his ward.

we haven't banned flowers where i work... we did discuss banning them, but decided not to for many reasons.. one being that it does help to ceheer up patients.. from the infection control point of view, no more a risk than keeping flowers at home (but i don't work in a high risk speciality) we do ask patients to look after their flowers themselves.. if someone asks for a vase i tell them where to get it and people are happy with that..

and if a bunch was delivered to the ward i would pass them on to the patient, same as i would a card or telephone message..

i would however ban balloons.. pointless floaty get in the bloody way things

different hospitals have different policies...

in 10 years i've never seen anyone get ill as a result of flowers

poor handwashing yes... flowers no!!!

There has been no properly carried out research into this but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support it. There is also concerns about freshly cut flowers being in a vase next to electrical equipment being a health and safety hazard.

I think it is a shame as a bunch of flowers do brighten up the dull NHS wards but I can see where these concerns are coming from especially in this day and age of increased wound infection rates etc

fruit baskets are very welcome

I would of thought fruit basket were worse. I can remember them being confiscated on boarding a cruise ship because they didnt want contamination.

i was talking about me to munch when dh is in hospital

flowers only tend to cause infection if they are left to fester in stagnant water , we have a volunteer who comes on the ward during the week and refreshes the water and throws away old or dead flowers . Some wards im sure dont have this luxury and the nurses,auxillaries and domestics simply dont have the time to do this .

Im not suprised they are banned sad for the op when she was trying to do something nice for her mum but I think its understandable.
I knocked a very expensive looking vase of flowers off a bedside cabinet when answering an emergency buzzer to a woman having a pph, not ideal trying to avoid glass, flowers, and water when putting in drips etc added to which her dh was not happy about the fact they were knocked over

chicaguapa if that hospital is st richards got a feeling that they don't allow flowers anymore. on the plus side bril hospital

This is very common, I don't think it is unreasonable for the hospital to refuse delivery, but I do think the florist should have known this and told you before you placed the order.
I was going to send flowers to a friend who was in hospital some distance away and the florist (I think it was Intaflora?) told me that they generally don't deliver to wards, so I decided against it. Instead I sent a little care package with some magazines and puzzle books to her mum who took them in next time she visited.

My sister's been in hospital recently. I thought about taking flowers but took her a book (do they carry bacteria?) and spent the money on topping up her patientline card so she could watch the Apprentice and surf the net from her bed instead!

hospitals are so boring that puzzle books, magazines, needlepoint puzzles anything to pass the time is nicer than flowers