"All round care"

My father in law was an arranged admission to Wishaw General. Despite phoning and having bed availability confirmed, he arrived and had to wait in ACU for over 6 hours. Working for the NHS, I appreciate the demand and changing pattern of downstream beds, so while the wait for my father in law was not ideal, he (and we) understood. What was not acceptable was the fact that both my mother in law and wife, were challenged by staff nurses in ACU that "visiting was not permitted in this area". Firstly, consideration should be given around this in circumstances where there are significant bed delays. As he suffers from occasional urinary incontinence, a symptom of this delay was that he was left in wet clothes for some hours. This would have been averted had his family been able to at least stay and tend to him during this time. Easier to address, is staff attitude. Even if open visiting was not flexible in these circumstances, there is a way and manner in which to convey this to relatives. Had it not been for the exemplary care and attitude of staff in ward 7, I would have presented my issues as a formal complaint. I would suggest however that staff (health board), revise the restrictions placed in areas such as admission units if / when downstream beds are delayed. I would not tar a whole admission unit based on the attitude displayed by two members of nursing staff, but it might be prudent to simply raise awareness around this.