To thing my need for rest in hospital should trump another patients need to have 10 visitors

[Wigwambam10]

Basicly in hospital with kidney infection which is slowly getting better. I have had almost no sleep last night as the women in the next bed had 9 visitors till 11 last night and then had her telly on really loud till 2. She then called someone and was on the phone for a hour.

I asked a nurse last night to talk to her and ask her to be quiet only to be told she can’t do anything as it’s the ladies right.

This morning at 10 all the visitors turned up again and different people have come and gone all day. There have been people practically sat in my cubical and one even tried to sit on the end of my bed.
When DH came to visit me I was in tears as I am so tired and obviously feel ill so he and a word with the ward sister and most of the visitors were told they had to leave. The sister also said that the women will be told to keep the noise down tonight
Well the night staff are on and all the visitors are back. One has almost fallen through my curtain. I have talked one of the nurses who said “the visitors are not doing any harm”. I can tell it’s going to be as bad as last night.
I lost my rag about five minutes ago and shouted to the visitors to shut up and go home and give me some peace. They laughed at me.
I am on the verge of demanding they take out my drip then getting dressed and walking out. I need to sleep so badly. I am sat here with tears streaming down my face. Nurses have seen me but no one cares.

I am usually a rational person and I can be very assertive but I am just so tired and feeling awful.

Oh you poor soul that's awful. What happened to the 2 visitors per bed rule?

How far away are you from being able to go home?

Don't bother stressing yourself out or getting into any sort of wrangle, you're not well and you shouldn't need to deal with this.

Contact PALS and get them to do it on your behalf.

My drip is due to finish soon and then I am going on oral antibiotics. Once it finishes if things have not quietened down I am discharging myself and going home.

Is there a day room the visitors and the patient they are coming to see can sit in? This happened when I was in once and the staff moved them out into another room. It simply did not occur to the patient with the visitors that we wouldn't want our small ward full of her family constantly.

That’s terrible and I’m sorry you’re unwell and tired. I’m surprised the staff are letting her have so many at once.

I would ask your DH to speak to PALs first thing in the morning.

Hope you feel better and get some rest xx

Contact details for PALS are here

www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Patient-advice-and-liaison-services-(PALS)/LocationSearch/363

If you do have to speak to the nurses about it again be sure to mention that you're planning to contact PALS as, in my experience, this usually lights a rocket under them.

Ask for the patient booklet ! Infact what’s the hospital as normally website have visiting rules on them then read them to the nurse in charge x

I am literary five minutes away from home. DH can come and get me whenever (I told him to standby). He also said he would come back to the ward for any oral meds for me tomorrow. I am going to make a complaint

Ask to speak to the site manager now , they should be able to sort something out for you if the staff on the ward will not do so . Hope you feel better soon .

I would usually be all over the ward rules with a rash but I feel so crap. I will mention pals to the nurse and see if it makes any different.

I think I would go home in your shoes OP. You poor thing. I don't know how wise that would be though.

Do you absolutely have to stay? Are you on IV antibiotics? I would ask them for an oral equivalent and be out of there sharpish. That's unacceptable and completely unfair. I really feel for you because there's nothing worse than having a severe kidney infection but the sleep deprivation would be the last straw for me.

I’m sorry, what a mess. I cannot believe 9 visitors is fine with the hospital. Please don’t discharge yourself if you are not feeling well. Could you possibly ask for some sleeping medication to put you out?
I am angry for you and hope you are feeling better soon 💐

That's absolutely awful and a mockery of two patients rule.
I can't believe the nurses have done nothing and what's with visitors at 10am...nearly every hospital I have ever worked in had no visitors in the morning.. Its when doctors do rounds etc
And visiting ended at 9pm...how come they were there until 11pm
I am sorry you feel so unwell but it doesn't quite add up..

I would also be preparing to go home as soon as you are on the oral antibiotics.

You need to sleep.

Which hospital are you in? That sounds rotten.

I work in a hospital and they're not the best places for sleep (machines, staff, patients becoming unwell and needing review), but what you describe is beyond reasonable.

What time are the visiting hours?

I am due to go to oral antibiotics after this drip bag is through. A few more hours I think. I have just asked the nurse how to contact pals and she said “hold on a minute” and dashed off

So sorry you are ill. Are you able to get out of bed? If so go and sit with the nurses at the nurses station. Tell them you can't sleep because of the noise so you've come to chat to them. They'll either get rid of the visitors, chat to you or get you a different bed. This will require some guts. I got moved to another bed when I had a similar problem.

This used to drive my elderly mum potty when she was in hospital. She’d often say ‘back in the day Matron would never had stood for such nonsense’.
She was right.

Text DH. Get him to phone in and sort it out. Get stern for you so you can rest.

DH was in hospital last week on the oncology ward. He has brain tumours and suffers blinding headaches. All the other patients in the ward were lovely, then a new patient came in who bought a tv card and insisted on having his telly on really loud without headphones, disturbing everyone else at night. The staff said they couldn't do anything about it because they didn't have any spare headphones. It was so obnoxious. Everyone else managed to watch the tv or their ipads with headphones, but they couldn't even go to sleep at a reasonable hour because of the noise.

Can you tell the nurse you are considering discharging yourself?

Visiting is 11am till 8pm. Hours have recently been extended

Yanbu in my opinion.

Despite their wonderful technical achievements modern hospitals can be horrible places to recover in ime.