Caution when visiting hospitals

- Adbulla Shinah, COO -

Every hospital in the word has very limited and strict visiting hours for those relatives, friends, colleagues, well wishers and whoever wishes to visit patients while they are in hospital. Most hospitals also inform whoever is visiting patients; not to bring flowers or other such gifts and also restrict in bringing children who are below a certain age.

Some might wonder why hospitals are restricting such things, which could actually make the patient feel better and lead to quick recovery, better morale and outright happiness.  There are many reasons for such strict or cautious measures:

• Your friend in the hospital might be suffering from an infectious disease which you might get infected with
• Bringing toddlers and young children might put them at risk of getting caught with a virus as their immune system is not as strong as an adult.
• The best possible cure needed by your friend or relative maybe just rest, which when people visit gets interrupted.
• Bringing flowers and such things might put the patient at risk of getting an infection. This is especially the case for burn patients.
• When you visit you might bring foods that are not allowed for the patient to consume.

The reasons go on.

There are also another category of visitors who also visit the hospital; thieves and burglars. One major reason hospitals restrict visiting hours and uses hospital passes is that thieves and burglars take the advantage of the hospital visiting hours and try to steal items from patients. Although by standers are there most of the time with patients, very often the thieves get the better of the resting hours of the patient and bystander and make away with mobile phones, laptops and money among other things.

 

Even for thieves it’s not good to visit the hospital for the above-mentioned reasons also stealing is bad; stealing form a sick person is really bad. This was the case recently in Western Uganda where an outbreak of Ebola Virus has already taken the lives of 16 people and many more contracting the virus. The easily transmitted virus, which causes severe fever, muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and unstoppable bleeding in victims and the frightening thing, is there are no treatments and no vaccines. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in public addresses urged people to refrain from contact with each other in ways that could spread the virus. Unfortunately, President Museveni failed to mention to not steal cell phones from Ebola victims.

A Ugandan thief, who was not concerned with the potential consequences, stole a mobile phone from a patient in an isolation ward at Uganda’s Kagadi Hospital, while supposedly pretending to comfort victims in the ward. According to newspaper reports, the Ebola patient filed a report with police about the stolen phone before succumbing to the virus and passing away. When the suspected thief started using the phone, detectives were able to trace it. Not that they needed to, because soon enough the thief turned up at the hospital displaying Ebola-like symptoms and seeking medication. At the hospital, the suspected thief reportedly confessed to stealing the phone and handed it over to police. He is now getting treatment in an isolation ward of the hospital.

You might say the thief got his just desserts, but this highlights the reasons why hospital visits should be made with caution. It’s for the benefit of the patients as well as the visitors and you might say for the thieves as well.