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.

Yes orchid it has happened more often than not with members of my family in the last few years.

Surgery performed successfully followed by botched/ zero aftercare with warning signs ignored. Patient then requiring rehospitalisation.

I don't understand why those bedside tv units aren't set up so that they ONLY work with headphones.
There is no reason why others should have to listen to someone else's Homes Under the Hammer

Hear hear! I spent months in and out of hospital here from October through December 2017. I then was on holiday back in Canada and was admitted on Christmas day. I was in hospital in Canada for 10 days and when discharged, I felt like a new woman - I honestly felt on top of the world. Anytime I was discharged over here, I felt like the walking wounded. No sleep, they had more or less put a band-aid over a gaping wound metaphorically speaking and then just off you go lol. I feel like the NHS is like a war hospital, where you're just about kept alive and then sent on your un-merry way. It's bloody awful when you think about it. And the thing is, you're so happy to get out of the damned places, you don't care!

Well done, OP. I was in exactly your situation following a major operation. Loud visitors, loud patients, TVs on all the time, full lights on all through the night, etc, etc. I just wanted to sleep. The final straw was someone ordering in a curry at 2 AM. I didn't know about PALS so discharged myself as soon as I came off the drip ABs and went on to oral ones. My dad came and somehow got me into the car and took me home with them 150 miles away so my mum could look after me until I was well enough to stand up. We brought the toddlers, too, because XH somehow failed to notice that a) I had just nearly died (he didn't even ring to ask how I was), and b) someone had to look after the children (he had inherited money, so was at home and didn't have to work, so no excuse). Thank God for my parents.

Im surprised the rules are so lax. 7 different members of my family drove anything from 2-4 hours to visit my nan in hospital.
They still made sure it was 2 visitors to a bed. The rest of us went to the canteen while 2 visited then we'd swap.

Glad you've got your own roo now and hope you feel better soon.

I agree, almutasakieun. I've left hospital early and against advice many times due to lack of sleep. They tell you they think you should stay, but don't make it possible to get decent rest.

Room not roo. Although it would be great to come out of hospital with a kangaroo

In my experience, the staff can be just as bad. Slammingdoors, noisily banging about in the store cupboard right opposite bays, stopping to have loud chats in the middle of the night. Obviously they are a place of work and you expect noise all day to some degree but they really are the worst place when you just need a decent kip! Glad you got some in the end.

Glad to hear you are now able to rest and well done for not being rude to that selfish bitch and her ghastly, entitled friends. I would have shrieked at her that I was moving to get away from her and called her some choice names as I was wheeled out (I dont do well on no sleep ).

I think they should bring back those scary matrons from days past (my mil was one). They wouldn’t have had any truck with this nonsense.

It's been several years since I worked in hospitals and I'm shocked that 'open visiting' is now allowed. There was a good reason for restricted visiting hours and number of visitors - patients need rest to recover and staff need space to get on with their jobs. Nurses I've worked with never used to have any problem telling visitors when it was time to leave.

I know it doesn't solve the problem of the selfish bastards but get your DH to bring in a pair of NOISE CANCELLING headphones today. At least you can put on some relaxing music, a podcast, an audiobook or a film and block out the rest of the ward for a few hours. This would be my pet hate so I really do feel for you xx

Oh I see you have a room now, even better 😁😁

This was the worst thing about postnatal wards for me. Constant hordes of noisy celebrating visitors, groups of 7 or 8 arriving per bed and staying for hours and hours and hours. How the hell is anyone supposed to sleep and recuperate?

My local hospital is now moving to all-day open visiting for most adult wards because patients say they want it. It probably does sound lovely if the question’s phrases as “would you like your visitors to be able to come any time?”, less so if it’s “would you like to put up with everyone else’s rowdy visitors keeping you awake after surgery?”

I'm an hca in a hospital and we would take a very dim view of that and would have asked the extra visitors to leave. We are fairly strict on visiting hours too, apart from emergency wards and palliative etc. Visitors out of hours would be expected to be considerate in any case.

Sitting on beds is a huge no no due to infection control.

I'm surprised at the staff's attitude, we would've been talking to the other patient and visitors. Def complain to PALS.

Hope you get better and are discharged soon.

My aunt was instrumental in getting the visiting hours on the maternity ward reduced in her hospital in Canada. She came in to visit me one day and asked had I slept and I said no, well I couldn't really, because it was visiting hours and there were a lot of people in and out. I was a lot tamer back in the day, and didn't see an issue with it.

She said, I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad to hear it, because I'm pushing through reform to reduce the hours to allow the Mums to sleep - she was a matron. But yes, the matrons were like dictators, on the dot of 9pm, everyone, husbands included were turfed out.

It would be lovely in theory if every husband was a considerate man, who whispered and just held his wife/baby and didn't snore all night long like a wounded pig. But the reality is that some are just ignorant pigs. Their sense of entitlement is unbelievable.
It's a blooming women's ward, where women are going through all sorts of hell, bleeding, leaky breasts, pain, not sleeping etc. And these men seem to think they are the only thing important on the ward!

Oh God, it gets my goat.

SingleDadStill - can't imagine why.

Open visiting should only be allowed on wards that have individual rooms, in shared bays it should be restricted (exceptional circumstances aside) out of consideration for the fact it is a shared space.

singledadstill has probably long since gone back under his bridge but I've been in hospital with a kidney infection.

I've never been more unwell in my life, never felt so ill, and was drifting in and out of consciousness while (like OP) on a drip.

To be charitable to singledadstill and to display considerably more politeness than he's displaying to the other posters here, I'll just say that I do hope he never has the misfortune to go through a similar experience. Though his attitude might be a bit more gracious if he ever had done.

YANBU, they are totally and utterly inconsiderate.
I hope you are able to get home soon.

I think reasonable visiting hours are 2-4pm and 6-8pm - they are the long hours in between meals/meds routine in a hospital. In the case of husbands/wives or a parent of an elderly lady/gentleman, then maybe until 9 (with discretion to throw them out lol).
My ex, asshole that he was, used to be quiet as a mouse in hospital with me lol. Nobody knew he was there half the time. He just wanted to sit with me. Only thing he was good at mind you! The nurses were kind about it with me because I would be in for overdosing half the time, so it was therapeutic to me having him there. We never really spoke, and if we did, we'd whisper (I didn't want everyone knowing my business). I'd lie there silently crying and he'd just hold my hand. Did I say that was the only good thing about him lol. But he was very good to me when I was ill.

I had a very difficult birth with my first and ended up in hospital for a few days. The constant visitors/rattling trolleys/lights on and off/snoring/phone calls/ babies crying pushed me to the brink of a breakdown. The nurses (thank god) recognised this and after a couple of totally sleepless nights they found me a single room on my own...own bathroom and everything. I realise I was incredibly fortunate in this, but pls do ask about single rooms. You never know your luck. A friend of mine was in the same boat and got a angle room but was charged for it (£70 a night iirc). Please ask. You are very ill and rest is critical.

‘Single’ not angle

I am glad they have finally taken action.
I recall having my first child and the bed opposite had hoards of visitors from 10am until 10pm. If I pulled my curtain round my bed to try and breastfeed one of men would come over and open the curtain and stand there (their excuse was my bed was near the handwashing sink).

I found it very distressing, felt violated and still furious 13 yrs later. Staff did nothing and I cried with hormones and frustration. And begged to go home.

Enjoy the peace and be proud you complained. Hope you get better soon.

MissMisery Was that in the UK can I ask?
Hope you're ok now and that your username isn't descriptive!

I remember after my emergency section there was three of us in the ward. Me, another young girl who was so lovely and this other women much older than us. She had the nurses run ragged. She didn’t bring anything with her and they were providing her with pads, milk etc...
Then she had a phone call asking her partner to get her some pants and that the hospital couldn’t give her any. The other girl was struggling to feed her baby and this women was taking everyone’s attention. I was there with my curtain round and my dp sniggering at this awful loud woman!