Hospital Horrors

Hospitals used to be quiet places with angels of mercy in white coming into rooms to soothe patients. There was an aura of peace and order. The corridors were uncluttered and shiningly clean. The ward desks were housed with medical staff quietly doing their work and assisting visitors to find the rooms of their loved ones. That was then. This is now and it isn't pretty. What happened to peace? When you go into a ward these days, it's a mess of noise and disorder and a chaos of hallway litter including dirty linens and badly kept gurneys and wheelchairs strewn about in hallways with some patients wandering about with their IV stands or physio items. You, the visitor,  have to work your way through a mass of clutter. And cleanliness is not always present especially in the washrooms. In the wards, there is a great deal of noise with beeping equipment defying any hope of rest, clanking intravenous bottles, patients with music on and televisions, visitors who are loud  and a lack of chairs that are juggled from one room to another. Our taxes support this?  Groaning persons are heartbreaking with their sounds and some patients who are in dementia situations call out incessantly. The nurses are hurried and few to be seen and the charge desk areas are also loud and sometimes staff speaking in tones that everyone can hear or their laughing over personal matters. I would like to say this is rare but I am sorry, it isn't. Most patients who must be in hospital hate their stays mainly due to the noise. I know this happens because at times both as a short term patient and a visitor, it's absolutely true. And most of it, to me, is plain careless management. When I was in for a few days, recently, my bedside monitor beeped constantly for no apparent reason and the man, yes, man, in the room with whom I shared a bathroom, was on his cell  phone constantly when he wasn't listening to music on it or beeping in numbers to call. All day and night. Budget cuts aside, surely the noise factor can be solved and some semblance of order and neatness attained.  And, forget privacy. When the doctor comes around, all the others in a ward hear every question and answer. It seems that not the patient's needs but the systems workings are being served. Can't someone come up with a nice clear plastic bubble for each bed, one that supplies the electronics and monitoring and communication and peace for some degree of quietness? The bubble would allow a semblance of privacy and peace while offering some of the necessary services. Sounds like space age but why not? Medical inventors, get out your pencils.