BMJ 2013;347:f6331 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f6331 (Published 22 October 2013)
Page 1 of 1
Letters
LETTERS SHOULD ALL PATIENTS HAVE SINGLE ROOMS?
Time to consider the best way to plan for single rooms Alastair W Rigg general practitioner GMS provider Dumfries and Galloway Health Board, Gretna Surgery, Gretna DG16 5NA, UK
The question is: can the NHS afford single beds and what is practicable?1 Nussbaum is right: nurse numbers must be considered first and above everything else.2 But what about cleaners? And what kit should each room have? The winter crisis in admission beds is completely missing from the debate. All hospitals need bigger footprints if single rooms are planned. There must be rooms that can be opened up or areas that can be re-partitioned easily in a crisis, an epidemic, or a coach crash. Mother and child rooms, rooms for patients with learning disabilities, and adaptable toilets for severely disabled people need to be planned for, and requirements for each specialty may be different. Sluices and hoists should be available for every room and perhaps windows between rooms could be one way, mirrored or black-out adaptable. Let’s assume that the next generation of hospital patients are all elderly, confused, immobile, and in need of multi-specialty and special sensory input. Do single rooms allow nurses to see patients when they fall out of bed? Can they accommodate dialysis and resuscitation equipment? Can they be sound proofed adequately from neighbouring rooms but also allow patients to talk to others in the long hours without stimulation?
Reading the article on what went wrong with the quality and safety agenda made me realise that doctors still have “bunker mentality.”3 Most complaints are due to lack of care and attention and repeating the same futile cycles without advancing up the chain of command. The clear benefit of the surgical checklist before operations must be applied to the single room problem. It is “time out” to consider the best way to plan for single rooms in an NHS hospital before the predictable complaints of “being left in a single room” come rolling in. Competing interests: None declared. 1 2 3
Pennington H, Isles C. Should hospitals provide all patients with single rooms? BMJ 2013;347:f5695. (24 September.) Nussbaum PT. [Electronic response to: Pennington H, Isles C. Should hospitals provide all patients with single rooms?] BMJ 2013; www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5695/rr/665387. Buist M, Middleton S. What went wrong with the quality and safety agenda? BMJ 2013;347:f5800. (30 September.)
Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6331 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2013
[email protected] For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
Page 1 of 1
Letters
LETTERS SHOULD ALL PATIENTS HAVE SINGLE ROOMS?
Time to consider the best way to plan for single rooms Alastair W Rigg general practitioner GMS provider Dumfries and Galloway Health Board, Gretna Surgery, Gretna DG16 5NA, UK
The question is: can the NHS afford single beds and what is practicable?1 Nussbaum is right: nurse numbers must be considered first and above everything else.2 But what about cleaners? And what kit should each room have? The winter crisis in admission beds is completely missing from the debate. All hospitals need bigger footprints if single rooms are planned. There must be rooms that can be opened up or areas that can be re-partitioned easily in a crisis, an epidemic, or a coach crash. Mother and child rooms, rooms for patients with learning disabilities, and adaptable toilets for severely disabled people need to be planned for, and requirements for each specialty may be different. Sluices and hoists should be available for every room and perhaps windows between rooms could be one way, mirrored or black-out adaptable. Let’s assume that the next generation of hospital patients are all elderly, confused, immobile, and in need of multi-specialty and special sensory input. Do single rooms allow nurses to see patients when they fall out of bed? Can they accommodate dialysis and resuscitation equipment? Can they be sound proofed adequately from neighbouring rooms but also allow patients to talk to others in the long hours without stimulation?
Reading the article on what went wrong with the quality and safety agenda made me realise that doctors still have “bunker mentality.”3 Most complaints are due to lack of care and attention and repeating the same futile cycles without advancing up the chain of command. The clear benefit of the surgical checklist before operations must be applied to the single room problem. It is “time out” to consider the best way to plan for single rooms in an NHS hospital before the predictable complaints of “being left in a single room” come rolling in. Competing interests: None declared. 1 2 3
Pennington H, Isles C. Should hospitals provide all patients with single rooms? BMJ 2013;347:f5695. (24 September.) Nussbaum PT. [Electronic response to: Pennington H, Isles C. Should hospitals provide all patients with single rooms?] BMJ 2013; www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5695/rr/665387. Buist M, Middleton S. What went wrong with the quality and safety agenda? BMJ 2013;347:f5800. (30 September.)
Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6331 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2013
[email protected] For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
