To think there’s no need for tv’s on hospital wards

[Ketley67]

I’m currently in hospital after having major surgery. I’m on a bay with some very poorly ladies. They/we are either sleeping, vomiting or just trying to manage our pain. No one’s chatting to each other, most are bed bound. Visitors are all being very quiet and respectful often just sitting watching their loved one sleep. I’m probably the most able here but my visitors are speaking in hushed tones to respect the other patients needs.

The cleaner on our ward is so loud. Every time she’s comes into our bay she puts the radio on the TV and announces ‘let’s have some music’, the nurses agree with her. She doesn’t turn it off as she leaves. I’m fed up of asking for it to go off. I feel im being a nuisance especially when I have medical needs that I have to be asked to be met.

Most people have their own personal devices if they want to listen to music or watch TV and whilst I can appreciate that some people enjoy some music when they’re working surely this isn’t the time or the place for it.

I was in so much pain yesterday I couldn’t even bare to be touched, the additional sensory in put from the shitting music really tipped me over the edge.

I feel your pain (metaphorically so to speak OP). Hospitals are awful for this, and a stay in hospital is such an ordeal for so many reasons in addition to the underlying medical need, it’s so counter productive to rest which is essential for recovery. My DH recently spent an extended period in hospital after a very serious accident and he’s very noise sensitive at the best of times so really really struggled with all the additional noise that was so out of our control, and affect that had on sleep. And that was with a room to himself as well. The staff were all brilliant, and I completely understand that all the beeps from machines etc are necessary but that doesn’t detract from all the reasons why being in hospital is so dehumanising in a way.

I’m glad at least that visitors are being quiet and respectful of people’s need for quiet and rest. I would speak to the ward manager and just keep on politely and firmly asking every single time for it to be turned off. I hope you get well very soon OP.

When I was in hospital for 7 days after a very bad miscarriage, the woman two beds down always had about 5 evening visitors, and the nurses just laughed and turned a blind eye (as that was way too many guests). The visitors actually brought in a portable TV, set it up on her food tray, and she would giggle all night at anything she was watching.

Then the woman directly next to me would call her boyfriend literally in the middle of the night. "hey! Yeah! It's me!" and then chat for absolutely ages.

I had to wonder why they were taking up hospital beds as they seemed really well. Well enough to screech with laughter and call boyfriends all night long.

You have my sympathy and you should say something.

The last time I was in hospital, I didn’t sleep for four nights/ days straight. It sent me into a depressive episode.
The main thing that kept me awake was the nurses.
They made so much unnecessary noise at night it was almost like they were doing it on purpose.

I think when they work night shifts, their working day is their daytime so to speak and they forget that it's night time for the patients. Hence the radio and inane chitchat on my son's ward. I actually loudly shushed them at one point when they were changing the bed next to my son's at 2am ready for another patient, and were making small talk in daytime voices. 2am! Of course they have to change the bed but "my boyfriend's still getting used to living in London what with all the traffic blah blah" SHUT UP.

My 2yo took 90mins of screaming to settle to sleep in that hospital bed, finally settled at 11pm, if they'd triggered that again at 2am I'd have resorted to violent crime

Sounds like you’re in a four bedded bay with communal TV which can make it tricky if all the patients have different preferences!

Surely this is what personal devices and headphones are for? We can all have our own entertainment devices now, we are no longer reliant on one TV in the corner of the room. The NHS needs to move with the times and allow people to either access entertainment or be left in relative peace and quiet. There is no excuse for foisting a blaring TV on an entire roomful of people any more!!!

My dad would've given his right arm for a TV on the ward.

You say 'most people have their own devices' but not on the frailty wards they don't - where the occupants generally seem to be aged between 70 and 100.

I agree with the others, this is a problem with the cleaner.

The TV on my ward doesn't work thank fuck. The last time I was in having had a stroke it was daybreak to day end coverage of the Queen's funeral. At top volume. Everyone in the NHS is either hard of hearing and doesn't listen anyway.

What I have now is the ignorance of people with iPads and no headphones. Maybe it's all geared to get us to discharge ourselves.

The OP isn't on a frailty ward and even if your DF would've loved a TV, who's to say that the other three people in his room would agree, or that they would've wanted to watch what your DF wanted to watch? The thought of having Eastenders, the Queen's funeral or something inane like BGT blaring away and not being able to turn it off is awful. You're just stuck when you're in hospital, ill and at the mercy of everyone and everything from your fellow roommates to the nurses, doctors, cleaners, everyone else's (generally awful) visitors and all the bleeping and blaring of alarms, phones and other people's entertainment choices. How anyone is supposed to get well I don't know.

Hospital wards are hell on Earth. They should use them for torturing criminals!

There is a need for tv in hospital. Many patients need them as a distraction from pain.
you can watch your own Netflix, Disney etc accounts on some and connect headphones.
depends entirely on the patient.

Which is all well and good in most modern hospital settings where patients are in individual rooms. It could also be on shared wards via local screen and headphones.

In the NHS rooms are still shared as the norm so its not appropriate to force TV or loud music on patients who do not want it. In this case its not even a patient turning on the noise - its one of the ancillary staff deciding they want the TV on and leaving it when they move to the next bay, despite the patients not wishing for this.

That is disrespectful to the patients who are stuck there, and bloody rude frankly.

Not everyone has personal devices, for a person with no visitors the TV could be the only company/entertainment they have access to during their stay.

In which case that patient can ask for the TV to put on and the staff member can ask if anyone else minds it being put on. That’s not what’s been happening here.

I was stuck in bed and fastened to an antibiotic drip for several days once (infected hand injury), and being trapped on that ward with absolutely nothing to do was mind-numbingly dull. I could have screamed with frustration at the sheer desperate boredom of it all, and a bit of light relief during the day would have helped a lot.

I'm surprised there is a TV at all. I haven't seen one in a hospital ward for a long time. Usually the noise problem is from visitors and sometimes nurses chatting.

Obviously only patients should be choosing to have the TV on, not staff.

YABU.

The issue isn't the telly it's the cleaner.

Many people, particularly the elderly don't have a device, or can find it hard to hold one.

There have been threads in the past on here about the noise in hospitals at night. It’s torture

Agreed, was recently in hospital for a few days and the TV's, aside for ordering food might as well have not been there. Everyone was happier on phones and tablets.

I agree with you when the statement refers to your situation and/or similar, but not totally in general across the hospital.
I can very much sympathise with you in your situation feeling as unwell and vulnerable as you are, especially as the other patients are in so much pain also and probably want peace and quiet also.
Insensitive given the nurses are making decisions about the impressionable environment without considering your needs, and moreso given, as you say the fact that people have their own personal devices.
Not fair.

I very much agree with this.

I recently stayed 3 weeks in hospital, in side rooms there's a tv, I was in one for almost 2 weeks but so ill I wasn't up to watching it. I then got transferred to a ward and there was no tv at all. It makes sense to keep tvs out of wards because the ward was noisy enough without having a tv on. So not all hospitals have tvs in wards which is a good thing imo. I read and used my phone also the nurses gave colouring pens, craft materials and pictures to colour if anyone wanted to do that. So it wasn't too boring.

if they need the tv on then I’d argue is preferable to everyone hearing someone crying in pain.
just put ear plugs in or wear one of those bands if you don’t like it.
we all managed to get by with different devices.

If they need the TV they can put headphones on rather than disturb everyone else on the bay.

Why do those wanting TV or radio or music noise trump those not wanting in?

The last couple of times I was an inpatient, the TV helped save my sanity.

I think there are some patients who are very poorly and need peace and quiet and others who have to be there but aren't ill who need something to combat boredom. I think the first group should get priority.