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Search for'Ban' on greeting cards at Frenchay Hospital
Monday, August 04, 2008, 08:00
John Nickolls sent his aunt Edna a card to cheer her up after she fell at her home.
But when he visited her on ward 107 she told him she had sent the card home because she was forbidden from putting it up beside her bed.
Mr Nickolls, who lives in Brislington, said during a previous visit he had been told he could not take flowers on to the ward.
A spokesman for the hospital said there was no blanket ban on cards or flowers, but flowers were discouraged because they could clutter lockers and hamper cleaning. They are banned in intensive care and wards where there is electrical equipment at patients' bedsides.
He said senior nurses would ask for cards to be moved if they were taking up too much space.
Mr Nickolls, 73, noticed there were no cards on the ward during his visit, which “stunned him”.
He said: “We wanted to cheer her up and there aren't many things you can give to someone who is ill.
“I thought it was taking away something very important from someone who wasn't very well.
“If I was on a ward, I'd like to receive cards.
“Frenchay is a wonderful hospital but it seems a shame people can't receive cards or flowers.
“They could maybe put the cards and flowers in an area away from the beds.”
Mr Nickolls, a retired fundraiser, said when his aunt was first in hospital he took some flowers in but a senior nurse stopped him and explained plants were banned “for health and danger reasons”.
He said: “We had never heard of this before and can only assume it is due to any bugs in the flowers or vases being knocked over.
“We asked if they could be left in a dayroom or nurses' quarters but this was also rejected, and they wouldn't dispose of them so the alternative was to bin them or bring them home.”
Richard Cottle, spokesman for North Bristol NHS Trust, which runs Frenchay and Southmead hospitals, said: “We don't prevent patients displaying 'get well' cards on the wards.
“However, maintaining a clean environment and reducing infection is this trust's number one priority.
“It is particularly important that the area around the patient's bed is kept as clean as possible and is free of clutter so our cleaners can get complete access.
“Responsibility for cleanliness lies with the sister-in-charge on each ward, and if they feel cards on display by a patient's bedside are getting in the way of domestic staff, they will ask them to be taken down.
“We hope this particular patient and their family understand the very good reasons why they were asked to do this.”
At Weston General Hospital, flowers are not allowed in intensive care and high-dependency units but can be taken to all other wards as long as they fit on a patient's bedside locker. There is no ban on cards.
At University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Bristol Royal Infirmary, flowers are allowed at the discretion of ward managers. If lockers are cluttered and nurses cannot carry out their duties because flowers and cards are taking up too much space, patients will be asked to move some of them.
Not allowed: John Nickolls wanted to give his aunt a 'get well soon' card
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