To think hospital should tell me what ward my family member is on?

[pinkyperkyyy]

My cousin is 44,he is a alcoholic and has isolated himself the last two years.
We used to be quite close but since he has started drinking he has dropped contact.
His mum,dad and brother are dead and he never married/had kids.
Today I found out (from someone in the street) he had a seizure and a brain bleed and was in hospital.
Obviously I wanted to check on him so I wanted to find out what ward he was on (massive hospital )
I called the admissions and explained and gave his full name.
She replied "date of birth"
I told her I didn't know this but I know he is late 40s.
She said I needed to give the exact date.
Then said "ok address"
I gave her the street name and said I didn't know the number (he only moved last year )
She said unless I told her house number she couldn't give me the ward.
I said that it was ridiculous,I didn't want any info about his condition just the ward so I could go up.
Anyway she wouldn't tell me as she said there might be 5 people with the same name ??
I said "what 5 people around late 40s ,same name and living in the same street"
Aibu to think it's ridiculous

Obviously, OP does care or she wouldn't have tried to visit him.

OP, you may have more success if you contact PALS (assuming you are in the UK) is and explain to them that he has no other family and you think you are next of kin and would like to visit. Unfortunately it is the weekend, so PALS is most likely closed, and I don't know if anybody else would be able to help.

How could the Op do.that if she doesn,t know what.ward he's on though Ocean ? If the cousin has a fairly unusual name than she could may be ask reception to send it to the right ward but if her cousin is say " John Smith" I think would make it more difficult .

I forgot to say, I am sorry about your cousin, and hope he will regain his memory. I would call social services in his area and talk with them, they may be able to help out.

I've rang my local hospital about my grandad lots of times.i give his name, they tell me what ward he is on. I am his carer and they wont give me info on his condition even with DOB etc. But he gets moved from ward to ward and I ring before I go and always get told which ward.

My friend was not impressed when he was in hospital and random people kept turning up to see him. No idea how some of them found out where he was as it was kept pretty hush hush.

If you actually go in, someone will assist

Dad had this for a neighbour who had a stroke

We were her family really but the hospital had to check everything because there’s no paperwork for this kind of thing.

In they end, someone escorted dad in and she was clearly pleased to see him so it was okay. All she could do was reach out her hand though, she couldn’t talk.

Also, when dad was in hospital we had to keep repeating “no visitors”. It’s hard for the hospital, they have to quadruple check really.

PS PALS might be around on a Saturday but if not, the chaplain is a good idea, as per a pp.

No offence op but if you are wanting to visit him now he is in hospital and not before hand (as you would know his address ,/birthday if you were that close) it could seem a bit too little too late.
Why dont you send a card to the hospital with his name on and write a message with your phone number then the ball is in his court.

you could try hospital social worker / PALS/ chaplaincy;,
also, prob best to go in person, armed with notepad, / card to leave message if poss.
good luck.
no need for the negative comments on here. ignore them. it is always good to try to do a good thing.

In your OP you say he’s 44, then late 40s. I think given you’re not even sure of his vague age you might’ve sounded dodgy to the person on the phone. I could give street name and vague ages about all sorts of people - my cleaner, colleagues I’m not close to...etc. So I understand why these practices are in place.

If you really want to visit him can you not find out his DOB through searching local records/ancestry database or similar?

Hi op I work In admin in the nhs and i understand why you are frustrated but we are not allowed to give information out. I work in primary care and even if you knew all the details including nhs number we couldn't tell you if a patient was in the building. We have to follow really strict confidentiality rules and it would be misconduct if we breached this obviously it must be slightly different in hospital as it sounds like she would of given the info if you had all the details. If you ring adult social services and voice your concerns to his social worker again they wont be able to tell you anything without his permission but at least they can hopefully help him.

YABU.

It was to visit him in hospital.
I wasn't asking for any medical information.

You could have been preparing to burgle his house while he is in hospital, or you could be an abusive ex.

You could be 1000 other things.