. . .NZ Nurses Organisation kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku, who formerly worked at Hawke’s Bay Hospital and lives in the region, said the plans raised multiple issues.
“There are times when it is important for family to have access to their loved ones. There is no doubt about that,” she said.
“But the problem with this is that it has the potential of disrupting a lot of things – patient flow, the work of nurses with patients, and security issues – it raises a lot of concerns.” . .
The operative word is appropriate.
When my baby sons were in hospital I was encouraged to live-in and that was the norm for a parent of any child under five.
Most hospitals have whanau rooms to allow families to be with dying relatives.
There could be cases of other patients where the presence and help of a family member is appropriate but that’s very different from blanket access to more than one visitor, especially if there’s more than one patient in a room.
The need for patients to rest and have privacy; easy access to patients by staff to administer treatment; and the importance of infection control preclude that.
The safety and comfort of patients and staff is another reason to restrict visitors to set hours in all but exceptional circumstances.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
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