Calls for hospital visitor policies to loosen as families frozen out

A leading doctor and family of a patient have called for hospital visitor policies to loosen so that patients can receive better care.

Currently there are only a handful of circumstances in which patients are allowed visitors including if they are critical or palliative patients, in maternity units, or suffering a cognitive impairment.

The hospitals say those rules are being directed by the state government.

It’s having a devastating affect on Lisa, who’s father is a patient at the Epworth Hospital in Richmond with bladder cancer and a heart condition.

She told Neil Mitchell her father’s condition means he can’t comprehend what the doctors are telling him.

“Emotionally he’s depleted,” she told Neil Mitchell on 3AW Mornings.

“He just feels great isolation, and (he’s) feeling depressed.”

Endocrinologist Dr Jonathan Cohen, works at two major hospitals in Melbourne, says Lisa’s story is all too common.

“We’re talking about a couple of situations — patients receiving devastating news with no one there,” he said.

“I feel like I don’t want to blame the hospitals, I want to know where this is coming from, they all tell me it’s from higher up, who are making these edicts.

“But I feel like we’ve lost our sense of proportion, it is, at times cruel.”

Press PLAY to hear more from Dr Jonathan Cohen and Lisa below

Image: iStock by Getty