[Margaret Pilkington]

You choose Neil........ these changes have been driven by expectations of patients.
The patients are the consumers......and have you heard the saying 'the customer is always right'....? Patients wanted longer visiting hours...... they want everyone and their grandmother to visit, they don't want to be told not to sit on beds....... they bring food and leave litter lying in patient areas. Patients also bring their own MRSA in with them.....it is difficult to decide whether the bug was caught from someone else.... it is always assumed by the patient that this is the case......but some patients will be the carrier of their own bug.......on the skin it is harmless, but if it gets into an open wound, well that's when the problems begin. As I have said there is not just one answer to this problem.

When I first started nursing, children under the age of 12 were not allowed to visit except in exceptional circumstances (such as if a family member was dying - even then it was discouraged) this was because it was known that there was a risk that they would bring infection into hospital......and even worse, pick up something while they were visiting.
It is widely known that hospital bugs can be virulent......but as I have said before, in this post and in others......I would not worry about going into QPH.