Hospital bans Get Well Cards - told to put them back
Published: January 17, 2006
A hospital that banned ”Get Well Soon” cards from its wards because they might introduce germs has been ordered to put them back.
Relatives visiting patients at St Bart’s community hospital in Rochester, Kent, at the weekend were told to remove cards and family photographs on hygiene grounds.
Nurses said the ruling followed a visit from environmental health officials.
Diana Beeny, whose father, Ken Hutchinson, 85, suffered a stroke, had to take down more than two dozen cards sent by well-wishers.
Mrs Beeny, from Hawkhurst, Kent, said: ”I had never heard anything more ridiculous in my life. They let people in and we presumably carry far more germs than a greeting card.
“But I took them down because I did not want my father too distressed by having an argument over it.”
Mrs Beeny said that the cards and personal photos were especially important on a rehabilitation ward where patients can often be resident for weeks or even months.
However, after an approach from The Daily Telegraph yesterday, Barbara Mead, a spokesman for the Medway Primary Care Trust, said the nurses had been ”mistaken” to order the ban.
Environmental health inspectors visited the hospital last Thursday and ordered that official notices should be laminated so they could be more easily washed to reduce the risk of infection.
”In implementing this, the staff went a bit further than they had to,” she said. ”It was a misinterpretation.
“We have apologised to Mrs Beeny and the family will be able to replace their cards.”
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