Vol. 410 No. 2
199 Mrs. Fennell asked the Minister for Health if individual hospitals have their own explanatory leaflets for patients and parents on (1) admission procedure, (2) being in hospital, (3) visiting, (4) staying in and (5) general information and advice on discharge as recommended in a Guide for Hospital Management published by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The booklet A Guide for Hospital Management was circulated by my Department in 1980 in conjunction with the booklet A Guide to help Hospital Patients and Visitors.
One of the recommendations made in A Guide for Hospital Management was that each hospital should publish a booklet for the information of patients and their relatives. Because the facilities and arrangements for patients and visitors usually vary from one hospital to another, it was considered that, rather than have one common booklet for all hospitals, it would be more satisfactory if a separate booklet was published for each hospital. To assist hospital authorities, my Department prepared a model booklet A Guide to help our patients and visitors.
It was recommended that the booklet should contain a map showing the location of the hospital, what a patient should bring to hospital, the admission procedures, arrangements for letters, telephone calls, religious services, visiting times, meal times and so on.
Last year, my Department conducted a survey of all hospitals and found that most hospitals had booklets based on the recommendations and that the remaining hospitals were either updating their booklets or preparing new ones.
