"Unprofessional conduct by a member of staff"

While recovering from breast cancer surgery my discharge was delayed as I took a bad reaction to the anesthetic. My husband and daughter visited the ward. My husband stayed 5 minutes and my daughter then took his place. She was told immediately that her visit was against the rules -she apologized and left. However, a member of staff was then talking about my daughter, and told another staff member that she was at it and that she had been told on the phone and out in the waiting area. They continued asking what she thought they were in here. This conversation took place within earshot of my room and caused great distress. 

My daughter had genuinely misunderstood the rules regarding visiting as several wards have different protocols. We had discovered this anomaly when visiting my father the previous week where he had been in two separate wards with different visiting rules.  

Considering the nature of my illness and the considerable stress that me and my family were under, I found the manner in which this matter was dealt with was unacceptable. 

I have been shielding during the covid pandemic and my family are all too aware of the consequences of breaking protocol. 

We also understand and appreciate that staff working in the NHS over the past 18 months have been under incredible strain. 

I could not fault the other members of the care team. Many of which went above and beyond. For example, the auxillary kept our spirits up with his cheery nature despite ' running around like a stolen motor' - his words. 

I feel staff, particularly senior staff, need to be reminded that they should not be causing unnecessary stress to patients or their families. The member of staff in question may have been having a bad day but it wouldn't have been any worse than my daughter's.