Sensible advice on how to improve a hospital experience from someone who has seen it from all sides

We are extremely grateful to Marilyn Jobson-Scott, a funeral director, who has experienced many aspects of hospital care over the years. These a few of her suggestions...

1, Make sure food is suitable for the patients. Marilyn has seen a patient given a straw to eat chunky soup.

2. Check that nothing is dangling down the side of a wheelchair which might get trapped in the wheel. Marilyn saw someone tipped out of a wheelchair when that happened.

3. Enable visitors to have access to vulnerable patients outside normal visiting hours if appropriate. Also be aware that some visitors may be struggling to make visits during the allocated times and would appreciate a more flexible system for them, if it is possible.

4. Avoid medical jargon when close to patients. They may not understand and it may worry or offend them. Marilyn talks of someone who thought he was being called a 'cabbage. The doctor talked of a 'CABG' - a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft.

5. To listen to patients' needs and act when requested for water or bedpans. Better still, check regularly if they need these, as they might not be able to ask for themselves.

6. Do not send patients home alone in the middle of the night.