Hospital visitors 24/7 for non-native speakers

[mfhtoeh]

My first AIBU but I’m curious as I think this could go both ways.

I’m in hospital on a ladies bay.
Visiting hours are 11am-7pm (minus restricted meal times).
There’s an elderly-ish lady that doesn’t speak English. She currently has 3 of her children with her (8.30pm) and her daughter and son have asked to remain on the ward with her 24/7. They asked for 2 blow up mattresses but were told no, but it was ok to stay in these circumstances.

I understand the language barrier is challenging. It also helps the nurses them being here to care for her.

However they talk alllll day and night. They don’t stop talking. The son uses the ladies only toilet etc. They also have the radio on at times.

Grumpy me just wants some peace and quiet. I want to sleep.

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YABU - the lady needs her family

YANBU - you should be able to have privacy & peace and quiet outside of visiting hours and men using the ladies patient only toilets is unacceptable.
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NB: She’s sick but not dying.

Out of hours not out of house!

I hope I’m wrong, but I’d guess that staff will be reluctant to say anything,,in case it’s construed as ‘racist’ or infringing the patient’s ‘cultural’ entitlements.

Please complain. And keep complaining. It's not on. I know we're hard wired to 'put up' with things politely, but this is just awful.

Please please complain. Very similar happened to me years ago when I was sharing a ward with a lady who did not speak English, I called PALS there and then once the nurses weren't going to do anything about it and PALS had the sons removed within the hour until visiting time was allowed.

I wasn't comfortable being bed bound, alone and on a female hospital ward with 3 men opposite me over night. It wasn't on at all.

Please please please complain!

This is disgraceful- you’ve not had any joy with the ward staff etc so PALS , director of service etc

there are other patients, like you, but the only one patient is being catered to by this.

You can’t have another night like this- nor can others in the ward. You are all ill, and you have rights to peace and privacy.

Just to repost the useful experience-based advice I posted that the MN censors also deleted: report this to the next doctor you see if the nurses aren't handling the situation.

Careful! Apparently we aren't allowed to talk about non-English speakers abusing the NHS...

I think she should be entitled to one female to help with translating. Not two people, unnecessary and unfair to have a man in a women's ward overnight.

Firstly you have no idea whether someone has paid tax in the UK or not based on how good their English is. Believe it or not there are many above board jobs where you don’t need to speak good English. If you can’t work out for yourself what they might be I will suggest cleaning and factory work as examples.
Secondly many women of all ethnicities work their bloody socks off for years in the home caring for families who are or who will grow up to be taxpayers and they do not deserve to be written off as NHS tourists whether or not they speak English.
Assuming someone is an NHS tourist based on their not speaking English is not only racist, it is also misogynist.

So immigrants can have elderly family members living here or visiting?

*can't even

Your post is racist, and ignorant@TheOccupier . To jump to conclusions like you have is just plain stupid as well. You have no idea at all about these people.

She shouldn't be "entitled" to a family member translating! That's actually worse than a proper translator! There's no need for the family members to be there outside visiting hours.

I live abroad and recently had an emergency operation. I was the foreign one, non native speaker. I know what it's like being a non-native speaker in hospital. I have every sympathy for the ill woman and it's great she has a supportive family (I don't have that), BUT this palaver is unnecessary.

Complain OP. Don't stop until the rules are followed. Failing that ask to be moved yourself.

It's 100% not acceptable that other patients' recovery/health is compromised because one patient has extra family, plural. If she needs so many family around then they could also move her to a side room to stop everybody else being disturbed.

Complain.

Yes. We usually get an interpreter in in this situation for that very reason. If it's out if hours though it's a bit more tricky. But we usually manage. Though I'm in paediatrics so it's slightly different.

Surely the ward sister didn't approve them talking late at night, let alone using an alarm? The nurse could at the very least have told them to be quiet or else.

Tonight if it’s noisy on the ward go and sit by the nurses station. State you don’t feel comfortable with men being in the bay and you can’t sleep because of the noise of phones etc.
Don’t move until the nurses have resolved the problem.
Contact PALS as soon as they are open.

100% they shouldn't be using relatives as translators. This has been a long known issue in the NHS, since at least the 90s.

Some very basic issues with it are:

• family member may not be translating in good faith
• family member may not have enough understanding to translate properly
• family member is less likely to be translating additional questions from patient, usually answering themselves
• patient loses privacy
• patient not able to properly advocate for themselves without family members approval

All these would be more concerning to me if it was a female patient and a male relative refusing to leave as it is in this case.

Regardless of the above, any visitor should stick to visiting hours, should not be using patient toilets (especially not men on a female ward!) and should keep conversations to a respectful volume.

Female patients who don’t speak English are well know to be at risk of receiving poorer care than those who do speak English. It’s a big concern for HCPs. Google translate is pretty rubbish for this sort of thing - it’s better than nothing, but you have to be very very careful with it (from experience of using it in this scenario). Language line is just as disturbing to other patients as having a relative present because it’s still a phone call at the bed space (often on speaker phone because that feels like it works better). Relatives shouldn’t be used for formal translation purposes (explaining results/ going through consent process etc) but are absolutely fine for normal ‘chat’ sort of translating and things like alerting the staff to a problem/ asking simple questions. Ideally a patient like that would be in a side-room so the disturbance to other patients is minimal (and relatives of a different gender to that bay shouldn’t be hanging out overnight) but there may be reasons why that’s not possible. Relatives shouldn’t be using patient bathrooms at all. Whatever the set up is, the relatives should be told to be quiet & have their phones on mute unless they’re actively translating for the patient.

This is the only thing I likes about being in hospital during covid times. Strict visiting hours and very limited visitors.

They need to put them in a side room and be strict about use of the toilets imo if they want to allow them to stay.

I think one family member to translate cuts down on buying in translation. So good.

Several family members making noise all night not ok. Make using female toilet not ok. They need to be gently informed of the etiquette and rules just in case it’s a cultural or language based misunderstanding but then after that they need to be given normal visiting times.

However, I would also say that hospital visiting rights are a bit archaic and don’t take into account the psychological factors in physical health - social connection being an important factor in healing and health.

I'd be tempted to start Tweeting them from your hospital bed. Although I fully understand the layers of difficulty here, for both the patient and thr NHS, this is totally unacceptable.

My daughter had quite a horrific event that put her in hospital and I was (very kindly) permitted to stay with her 24/7. The difference is that she was put in a private room but even then I crept around the halls like a mouse, used the visitors toilets, kept my phone on vibrate in my pocket, left the ward for phonecalls and just generally tried to behave like I didn't exist.

Rudeness isn't cultural, it's individual. Just like being a wet blanket.

I think the only option you have is to be the squeakier wheel.... exhausting but unfortunately necessary. Complain to everyone constantly, including the unnecessary visitors.

To be clear, "wet blanket" was a reference to the mishandling by staff, not aimed at you OP