Curbing number of visitors at hospitals

In Bangladesh, visiting a near one admitted to a hospital is a part of the culture. The culture is not confined to this country alone. To be more accurate, it is a culture of South Asia. Be it India, Pakistan or Nepal, everywhere hospitals see a regular flow of visitors. It is also widely believed that visiting a patient in a hospital can bring emotional support to them and help reduce their anxiety and stress. Ultimately, the visitors can help in the patient's early recovery.
All these do not mean there should be a regular rush from visitors. Instead, there are some etiquettes to be followed in hospitals by visitors. Unfortunately, many hospitals in the country witness a lack of proper manners from visitors who ignore the primary rule of not disturbing other patients in hospitals and clinics. When a patient shares a room or ward, there are other patients. So all visitors must take care in this regard and not make noise in the room, which often is not maintained.
Almost every hospital has fixed visiting hours. It is the responsibility of the visitors to respect the timing of exit.
Many are, however, used to defying the visiting hours and trying to visit their patients whenever possible. In public and community hospitals, these visitors create trouble as hospital administrations cannot control them for various reasons. In some cases, visitors argue with and intimidate the guards and staff of a hospital to have access to the restricted zones of patients. The frequent presence of visitors also compromises the patients' privacy, which is not desirable at all.
Many visitors also ignore that visiting and staying beyond the visiting hours disturbs others and the routine functions of hospitals. Only big private hospitals strictly maintain the visiting hours and compel the visitors to do so.
Too many visitors at a time are another problem. It creates an unnecessary crowd, which sometimes turns into chaos.
There is a wrong attitude among many that going all together to visit their relative or friend in the hospital is a responsibility. Frequent arrivals of visitors also enhance the risk of inflections in hospitals. Many visitors do not care about hygiene, and hospitals also do not have a proper system of regular disinfection. It is necessary to ask all visitors to clean their hands when they first arrive so that infections such as bacteria and viruses in the hospital could be contained.
It is also true that many hospitals in Bangladesh need to be equipped to manage the requirements of their patients. Patients need their attendants and visitors to help them collect medicines, take samples for tests and do similar other tasks on their behalf. The inadequate human resources in hospitals and limited logistics compel patients to rely on their visitors, some of whom also serve as attendants. Some patients also need 24-hour attendants due to their critical conditions.
More than three years ago, the health ministry issued a guideline to control visitors in public hospitals. It includes a compulsory pass for visitors, a refundable security deposit for the pass, allowing a maximum two visitors as attendants for each patient and registering the names and addresses of the visitors. Many hospitals have yet to implement the guidelines and are unable to control undue visitors. It is, thus, the order of the day to strictly follow the guidelines to reduce the rash of visitors. At the same time, it is the government's responsibility to enhance the efficiency of public and community hospitals by employing an adequate number of skilled caregivers so that patients do not feel the urge to rely on visitors.

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