Madam, - On a recent admission to hospital, I was alarmed to see 13 visitors, including an infant in a buggy, around one bed. Another child lay asleep on the pillow of the same bed, while two toddlers ran amok up and down the ward. Apart from the distress caused to quite ill patients, this was an ideal setting for cross-infection.
Perhaps the following passage from the 19th-century Irish Law on Nursing could be used as a guideline for hospital accommodation.
"There are not admitted to [ the patient] into this house fools or lunatics or senseless people or half-wits or enemies. No games are played in the house. No tidings are announced. No children are chastised. Neither women nor men exchange blows. No hides are beaten. There is no fighting. [ The patient] is not suddenly awakened. No conversation is held across him or across his pillow.
"No dogs are set fighting in his presence or in the neighbourhood outside. No shout is raised. No pigs grunt. No brawls are made. No cry of victory is made in playing games. No shout or scream is raised".
Mary Harney, nota bene.- Yours, etc,
EILEEN LAWLOR, Bundoran, Co Donegal.