Better Hospitals
The report of the Central Health Services Council on the reception and welfare of in-patents in hospitals, published on Monday, is, as the Council itself implies, a product of the National Health Service. A new type of patient is using the hospitals—a type that will not accept dumbly the old rigours of the system, noise at night, lack of sufficient ward-lighting, very early waking and all the other major and minor irritations which made sojourn in some hospitals both irksome and mono- tonous. On the staff side reform has already taken place; the nurse's task is much more congenial than it was before the war. Now the old rigidity towards patients is being questioned —none too soon. The reforms advocated by the report can be summarised in one recommendation—that the patient should be regarded as a person and not a " case." Among larger reforms suggested is a more sympathetic reception, the provision of more information about both routine and the patient's own illness, an increase in the number of visits, and the invitation to patients to make suggestions as to their own welfare. Smaller points include more tastefully arranged meals, more comfort- able beds and more books, with privacy provided by means of curtains rather than screens. The report claims that most of the improvements will cost the hospitals little. A greater prob- lem is perhaps the antiquity of some buildings; but the main factor in a patient's comfort is the attitude of the staff, and the report should work a great improvement here.
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