"The way I was spoken to."

When visiting my friend at 10.30 one morning on Ward B23, the Ward round came into the room. The Dr pleasantly said to my friend, who is this you have with you?. As my friend replied, the nurse, in what I found to be, a very cold and dismissive manner (verging on passive aggressive, in my opinion) said, Can you wait outside please….visiting doesn’t actually start til 11 o’clock. I was very embarrassed to be spoken to like this, and felt like I’d been told off for being there. Also, I was sure there was supposed to be a patient-centred approach to visiting on the ward, which meant visiting wasn’t restricted in this way.

Of course, I went out as asked. After the ward round had left (and after much consideration, since it still wasn’t 11am - I didn’t want told off again), I went back in. My friend was a bit upset because she had wanted me to be with her when the Drs spoke to her, but, like me, had found herself unable to say anything in the situation. On returning home, I checked the visiting times on the hospital website and found that there is no 11am restriction on B23 - I can’t believe a person in overall charge of the ward wouldn’t have known this. I also don’t understand why the nurse felt they needed to act in such a hostile, unfriendly manner - it came completely out of the blue and we felt is was uncalled for.