Hospital Notice Board

Concerning Visitors' Passes

A problem has arisen in connection with visitors' passes which requires only a word of explanation to be appreciated by the patients, who, we are sure, are sincerely anxious to assist the hospital authorities in the maintenance of that Discipline without Institutionalism which is so characteristically the keynote of life within the walls of the 3rd L.G.H.
The matter may be stated thus: Pte. Smith, in Ward 25, sends a Pass to Miss Jones, of Clapham, and is duly visited by that lady. While paying her Sunday afternoon call on Pte. Smith she is introduced to Ptes. Jones and Robinson, who are in the next beds in Ward 25; perhaps she even makes the acquaintance of Ptes. Black and White, who have dropped in from Wards 24 and 26. By the time Pte. Smith leaves the hospital Miss Jones has quite a circle of acquaintances therein, whom she continues to visit on the now departed Smith's pass.

Imagine this happening over and over again, with hosts of fresh arrivals, and it will be seen that we eventually create an ever-increasing band of regular visitors to the hospital who have, strictly speaking, no business to be within its walls, and who thus - quite innocently no doubt - cause a good deal of confusion. Patients who have friends in the immediate neighbourhood are therefore very earnestly requested to exercise discretion in the granting of Passes. We all have every desire to be sociable, and to make the visiting days as pleasant as possible for all concerned; we appreciate, too, the kindliness which induces our neighbours to come into the wards to cheer their wounded defenders. But the 'snowball' effect of Passes being used after the patients who granted them have left threatens to become serious, and if not remedied by the goodwill of the individuals concerned will have to be dealt with by the exercise of a far greater, and therefore more irksome strictness by the sentries and ward orderlies.