“Get out of bed!” The command conjures up memories of teenage life and parents who didn't want the education authorities searching for an absent student.

The order is taking on a significantly different meaning at some hospitals, where the pressure for bed space means that the dead are being viewed much like the nuisance teenager who oversleeps.

Well, not quite, but Nursing Standard (May 7) reports that nurses are becoming frustrated because treating patients with dignity is so difficult.

Their feelings were aired at a packed fringe meeting on dignity at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) congress. One nurse said: “When a patient died recently, managers rang the staff nurse in charge four times within two hours to see if the bed was free. On the final call one said: ‘Haven't you got rid of that body yet?' It was disgraceful. When a patient dies, they are entitled to respect and dignity.”

Uniform policy won't suit all

HR gurus are dubious that aligning pay and conditions of those doing the same jobs for different public sector employers is a good idea

BACKGROUND

• Why you just can't be too careful these days

• Recruitment is no board game

• Patient dignity gets the elbow

• Economies of wishful thinking

Related Internet Links

• Public sector jobs

• Snakes & Ladders

Hospital nurses said that mixed-sex accommodation, a lack of space and curtains that leave gaps make it difficult to provide a suitable environment. One said: “At my trust every inch of space has a bed in it. If they could put beds in the toilets they would.”

Others said that colleagues could do more to improve dignity. “I have seen staff doing full sets of observations on patients without saying anything to them. It is really hard to imagine how you could do that, but it happens.”

Nursing Times (May 6) reports that Peter Carter, general secretary of the RCN, told the congress that nurses should tackle the abuse of patient dignity with the same passion and determination as they had in their fight for better pay and conditions. “Never leave it for someone else to sort out ... nurses should be sorting it out.” The RCN will begin a campaign on patient dignity in June.

Healthy fags and a G&T

Patients, eh? What are they like? And why do they ask such dumb things?

Pulse (May 7) says that a patient had 1,000 cigarettes confiscated by Customs when he came back from holiday. He asked his GP for a letter supporting his application to have the ciggies returned on the ground that they would have no ill effect on his health.

Here's another example, from GP (May 9). In response to her query about drinking while taking her new tablets, a patient was told by her doctor that she could “have the odd gin and tonic”.

Having made an emergency appointment some time later, the patient asked if she could move on to white wine because she was bored with gin.

Cheers.

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