| ■ U.K. Hospitals Should Allow Sitting on Patient Beds: Doctor | 2010.03.19 |
| Many British hospitals forbid visitors from sitting on a patient's bed, but the practice is unjustified and prevents patients from being close to loved ones, a doctor writes in a commentary published Wednesday in the British Medical Journal. Hospital officials say the policy helps protect patients from getting infected by visitors and health care workers, or vice versa. But Dr. Iona Heath says she was "shocked" when she heard about the sitting bans, the Associated Press reported. She added that she wouldn't hesitate to sit on a patient's bed during a house call or while treating a patient in a hospital. "Doctors should never be discouraged from sitting, because patients consistently estimate that they have been given more time when the doctor sits down," Heath wrote in the journal commentary. "Such interactions are precious and should be made easier rather than more difficult." Rules that forbid sitting on patients' beds are determined by individual hospitals, said Britain's department of health, the AP reported. |