You can’t recover in hospital

[Schuyler]

I’m not complaining about the care which has been exceptional. I just think the environment is not conducive to recovery. Unfortunately, I’ve been admitted to 5 different hospitals over the last few years and I’ve seen the same thing in all.

The temperature is unstable - either far too hot or far too cold.

The food can be virtually inedible. It is certainly not nourishing! Longish admissions mean I work my way through the menus. I’m fortunate to have almost daily visitors who can bring me food but many people don’t have this luxury. If you’re taken for tests when the food arrives, you might end up with cold food or melted ice cream.

It’s noisy and impossible to sleep and too bright. I understand why they need some lights on and obviously they can’t help beeping and confused people calling out.

I don’t think there’s a real answer but people look at me like I’m an alien when I tell them I tend to get better much quicker at home! AIBU?

[Itsallpetetong]

YANBU, all hospitals should have single rooms only so you get at least some degree of privacy and peace & quiet

Ha!
I had a recent op and was thrilled to be given a private room.......until I realised it was next to the lift shaft so there was ‘whine,squeak’ approx every 49 seconds 24 hrs a day.

The A& E was directly below so ambulances were arriving Day & night.

I was oppose the nurses station so loud conversations no matter what the time, phones and, as it was near the ward entrance, relatives arriving and stopping at the station to check where relatives were, buzzers going all night and

last but not least, the selfish cow in the room next door who had her door open and tv blaring until 2am.

I cried when they said I had to stay another night as I didn’t have a wink of sleep all night after my op even with the nurse kindly giving me morphine.
The second night, I had DH bring headphones & an old iPod, I spent the whole night with low music playing to block the racket out so I had a bit of a doze. I couldn’t wait to get home.

Food was lovely though.

DH has several admissions a year, I will now have more sympathy for him!

[YesQueen]

I was woken at 1am to be asked what I wanted for lunch the next day..

[YesQueen]

On the plus side I had a private room, great staff and the food was nice, plus they brought me endless cups of tea!

[Sewrainbow]

Yanbu

[RightYesButNo]

YADNBU! I’m in a shite situation as I have a condition that is made a lot worse without rest so if I need the hospital, I’m usually trying to leave as soon as possible as not being able to get the rest I need will make me much more ill. I always tell doctors when they want to admit me that being in the hospital will actually make me much more sick. I know I’ve avoided the hospital a lot of times I probably should have gone (I’m actually avoiding it right now, while my disease is having a big “flare” and I’m not doing very well, but I’d rather be enduring this at home and at least somewhat comfortable, than the discomfort AND lack of rest in hospital, which after a few days, starts making me feel a bit hysterical), but it’s just so awful. The times I haven’t been able to escape the hospital and I can’t sleep or get rest, it really does feel a bit torturous. I don’t mean to sound dramatic about it but I have to deal with a lot of pain from my disease; even so, I’m still pretty pathetic about sleep deprivation, and that’s what the hospital always hits me with. I mean, you’re not allowed to use sleep deprivation on prisoners, yet sick hospital patients seem to have to deal with it constantly?

[Nat6999]

When I was in hospital after having ds, I spent 2 nights in high dependency drugged up to the eyeballs & drifted in & out of consciousness, only to come round to a nurse trying to clamp ds on my boob, I found this very upsetting & felt violated. Then when I was moved to the post natal ward, the night drug round didnt start until 11.00pm, by the time they got to my room it was often gone midnight, only for the lights to come on at 5.00am, allowing for feeding time that meant that I had roughly 3 hours for sleep, not including being woken at 2.00am for blood pressure & temperature. No wonder the night I got home I slept for over 16 hours, I hadn't had a good nights sleep for over a week & why I discharged myself, I was hallucinating, hospital did not improve my blood pressure, it was getting higher & higher due to the fact I was stressed out, terrified to go to sleep & starving as I never got fed properly.

[bakebeans]

No you can’t! High risk of hospital acquired pneumonia and other risks such as MRSA and C. difficile. This is why there has been more drive in the communities to recruit more associate practitioners and other health professionals to try and reduce hospital admissions (not just to reduce the bed strain)
The problem is that councils have no money and services have been stopped and not got going so it has yet another knock on effect

[Girasole02]

Totally agree. My nan is currently in hospital. She's 93 and has dementia and no longer has capacity. There is a notice up saying two quiet visitors only per bed. Lady in next bed is younger, has all faculties. She is very loud. Today three equally loud members of her family were visiting, impinging on the space around her bed. I eventually pulled the curtain across hoping they'd get the message. They didn't. The lady opposite is very ill and cannot swallow. A roast beef dinner had been put on her tray, out of reach and she was just abandoned. Said dinner was eventually collected untouched by an orderly and scraped into a bin. Nightshift swap over saw nurses loudly talking about Nandos and asking each other to buy scratchcards when one of the ladies had pressed her buzzer for the loo at least five minutes beforehand.
I dread to think what happens that nobody ever sees. Total lack of manners, compassion and common sense.

[bridgetreilly]

I genuinely believe that if more money was spent on making hospital patients got good, appropriate food at every meal time, even if that money had to come out of treatment budgets, there would be better clinical outcomes over all. In my recent hospital stay, out of 9 lunches and dinners I only got three where I was able to choose from the menu and then actually get the food I'd chosen. Almost all the other food that was brought, including all the breakfasts, was entirely unsuitable for a diabetic patient. And twice I missed meals altogether because of ward transfers/being taken for tests.

I was lucky to have family able to visit regularly and bring me better things to eat, but most of the patients on my ward did not get visitors and were left to make do with what they got.

[AnneElliott]

I agree with everyone else - I couldn't wait to leave once I'd had DS. In fact they told me he might need to stay another night (I'd had Strep B) and I told them he could stay and I'd be back in the morning but I was going home. Suddenly it wasn't so much of a requirement for him to stay.

DH had a heart op in another hospital and while ICU and HDU were absolutely fantastic, I've never met such a lazy, loud, workshy group of people as the nurses on the general cardiac Ward. I ended up answering bells for the older men who needed a wee bottle, or help to cut up they'd food etc. All while the nurses gossiped at their station.

Once you can walk then you are definitely better off back home IMO.

[Farfarfaraway]

I wonder how much PND is down to the past natal ward. I am guessing a lot
When I was last in I had major surgery I was begging to be let out.
One the the worst things was the bins crashing down because the nurses were incapable of closing them quietly.
I know I will prob get slated for saying this but a lot of nurses really don’t give a dam. Most do and are great but you get some that you really do wonder why the hell they became nurses.
I was a student nurse and came out after one year because I could not handle the bitchiness. Since I have made my career since working with and looking after disabled people I think I would have made quite a good nurse. So many student nurses leave because of this and unfortunately they would have made good nurses because they are the ones who actually gave a toss.

[LaMontser]

Not U. One of the key markers for being admitted to hospital is having been in hospital. It’s the food, disturbed sleep, infections etc.

[ragged]

I had 5 days in hospital 10 yrs ago. You can only sleep there if you're too ill to do anything but sleep.

I was also too ill to eat so comment on the food qual .

[Walnutwhipster]

I've had many long admissions and whilst I agree with you, what I will say is that when you're at death's door you don't notice any of those things. I always knew I was getting better when it got to me.

[Charley50]

Absolutely agree. Also hospital delirium is a thing, which in my elderly mum actually sped up dementia. My mum dreaded going to hospital, but my siblings kept taking her there (for UTIs). Every time she was there she got more sick, and her mobility and mental function declined rapidly.

[timshelthechoice]

I wonder how much PND is down to the past natal ward. I am guessing a lot

I'm guessing you're right. Postnatal women get treated like shit in many places and I'm actually surprised more don't die due to such shockingly poor treatment.

[venusandmars]

Agree that food is awful. I was in hospital and basically had an M&S request list for my visitors: no flowers, no cards or books or magazines, but please bring small, tasty, nutritious, elegantly presented M&S food that actually tempted me to eat. Or even just an avocado.

My my elderly df was in hospital the surroundings caused him a level of confusion that he'd never experienced before. It was never dark enough to be night time, and no real daylight so he would know it was daytime. He would look at the clock and not know if it was 2am or 2pm. The drs didn't want to discharge him because he was confused - yes because he couldn't sleep, and was disorientated. The longer he stayed, the worse his confusion got. Against advice, we took him home. He slept for 4 hours, mid afternoon, then got up, went to the kitchen and made himself some scrambled eggs for tea, without a moment's hesitation. I think that particularly for elderly patients, the familiarity of their home surroundings, access to food that they like and are used to are so much more conducive to life.

My df died 3 weeks later, but we were glad that he was at home, could see his garden, could request a gingernut biscuit with his tea.. Perhaps hospital could have prolonged his life for a couple of weeks, but it would have been a miserable life for him, and for all of us.

[Schuyler]

@Walnutwhipster

I don’t know if I agree as I’ve been critically ill a few times. Granted, when on a ventilator and/or tube feeding, the food and other stuff is not an issue but lack of sleep in the ICU always affects me hugely. Paradoxically, the more drugged, the less likely I am to sleep. The staff in ICU are phenomenal though.

[Walnutwhipster]

@Charley50 I've had delirium both times when I was in ICU post life support but I was aware that what I was seeing and hearing weren't real. MIL has never had any mental health issues but within three days of being admitted (she wasn't given any pain meds) for a fairly minor break had a full psychotic break caused by delirium. If I hadn't seen it myself I would not have believed it. Two years later she is back at home and doing really well but it shocked me what delirium could do.

[Lindy2]

Luckily I've never had a long stay but the food I had at our local hospital was actually pretty good. After being pretty exhausted and used to rushing around doing things for others it was actually just so nice to have food brought to me whilst I just lay in bed.

The noise at night though. Dear God. I swear there was more noise and goings on at 2am at night than at 2pm in the day.

[Walnutwhipster]

@Schuyler I've been tube (jpeg) fed for years so food doesn't come into it for me but in ICU I am always so far out of it I really aren't aware of my surroundings and usually start to feel it in HD. I'm eternally grateful to the ICU nurses. I was on a ventilator both times initially but DH tells me how amazing they were with DC. I've always said ICU was worse for them than me. On normal wards they let me do all my own feeds and meds because they go down my line. I admit I'm antisocial, noise cancelling headphones are a must.

[Spaceprincess]

@OneHanded , I recently spent 10 days in a fairly small district hospital. It had two weeks menus by the beds. No vegan food at all, as every vegetarian option had either cheese or egg in it. Luckily I'm not vegan, but was playing with the menus out of boredom.

[Charley50]

@venusandmars - I absolutely agree with that. Also he might have actually died more quickly in hospital and in distress. He was comfortable at home with his loved ones, which would have meant a lot to him.

I always found with my mum, most consultants couldn't get her home quick enough, as they knew how quickly it could get worse.
But the last time she went, she was in for weeks, and everything got worse everyday and she died in there. Not the hospitals fault at all, just not a good place to be for the very elderly.

[Charley50]

@Walnutwhipster - yes I only recently discovered that any age can get delirium. Another scary and very real side effect of being hospitalised.

[venusandmars]

@Charley50 it's tough isn't it. I like the 'Hospice at Home' concept, but it's not yet widespread enough, particularly for all the elderly in our communities.