To call the hospital Will they tell me anything?

[ohdaisydaisy]

My mum is really worried about a friend who is in hospital. The friend is very ill and stopped replying to messages on Thursday. If I were to call the hospital would they tell me anything? No other way of contacting her other friends or family. I know they can't tell me much but would they say if she's in a ward / in intensive care / in the morgue?

Well you can try at least, I would.

Can you/your mum visit?

They can normally tell you the ward.

Really they shouldn't tell you anything at all without her consent, even whether she is in the hospital or not.

They won’t/shouldn’t tell you anything unfortunately. Does the friend have any relatives you could contact on your mum’s behalf? Hopefully everything’s ok and her phone has just run out of battery or something.

If you know what ward they are on, there should be a separate mobile number for the ward. Sometimes you have to call switchboard, then ask for the ward, then someone gives you the number. It can be a bit long.
But once you've got that you can call and a nurse will answer and try and either put you through to her or tell you that she's there. If she's become more seriously ill I'd imagine they would tell you she has been moved. They might not want to say exactly why though.

They may only update nok. Does she know any of friend's relatives?

No, we don't know anyone else we can contact.

No, they won’t tell you anything. What they say is “speak to your friends family”. You may well get through to whatever ward they are in but that’s all they will say. Even if they’ve died, they won’t tell you. Switchboard/admissions will put you through to their last recorded place of admission and they will only say the above whether your friend is either dead or alive.

It’s worth a shot 🤷🏼‍♀️ when my dad had surgery, the ward let me know if he was back on the ward or not when I called up. I didn’t state my relation to him either.

You can try, various relatives updated themselves on my ds despite me being the only point of contact given and him saying he didn't want visitors.

What are the reasons why they wouldn’t tell you if they’ve died? Data protection obviously doesn’t cover dead people in the same way so it can’t be that. Maybe because they don't want to be/ shouldn’t have to deliver bad news?

Send a card and include a contact number so any relatives know she is concerned?

Ring and check ward and visiting times and then go and see her?