Hospitals from a different viewpoint

Like most medical students, I see hospitals as places for tutorials, clinical teaching OSCE's and maybe the odd lecture or two. But over the past few months I have come to see them in a different way - firstly as a visitor to see my Grandpa who had a stroke and was in a DGH about 40 miles away. At first when he was well, going to see him was easy and fun and I noticed various little things that reminded me of my teaching placements. However, they also made me wonder about such things as:

• Why are there no Doctors around at family visiting times?
• Why are visiting times so restrictive when often patients have little to do all day?
• Why do fairly modern hospitals not have a phone at each bed and a selection of more than 3 radio stations to listen to?

The food at this particular DGH was good and freshly cooked on site, unlike its nearest major teaching hospital which until recently had food cooked 300 miles away trucked up and reheated on the wards each day.

Then today, I went with Little Miss P from work to see G who is a diabetic member of staff and is in one of the local teaching hospitals having had a hypo as a result of a bad cold last week. He was admitted on Saturday. The weird thing is that had this week been a Clinical teaching week, and not a vacation, I would have been on his ward and could well have been off to see him to get a history and examine him. I'm not sure what the rules are on this - can I just say "I know him", or would I have to consent him and him refuse? Anyway I hope he's better soon.