"Visiting hours"

I was admitted for a procedure to Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen.  The staff were excellent and very attentive. I am writing this as my experience with the new procedure of allowing relatives to stay with the patient all the time was not.

I was in a 6 bedded ward (female) and one patient had two male relatives staying with her all the time. I appreciate that most people are anxious and come from outlying areas but all patients should have the right to privacy when waiting for operations as everyone is anxious and require some peace and quiet.

The staff suggested for them to go to the day room which they ignored, the noise level and the topics of conversation got so bad that I spoke to the nursing staff who advised that they could not do anything, myself and another patient ended up moving through to the day ward just to get peace but as our procedure time approached we moved back to the ward area.  I ended up having to ask the relatives to lower their voices and to respect other patients.

The other 5 patients were all of the same view and it should not be up to the patients to ask other relatives to keep quiet.