Hospital visiting hours

Press, 5 December 1981, Page 14

Hospital visiting hours

Sir,—As a part-time hospital receptionist at least 50 per cent of my time is spent answering telephone calls re our visiting hours. Other people in my profession I understand, have the same problem — hospital visiting hours not being printed in the telephone book. Some time ago we heard that a new telephone book was to be printed and inquiries were made with the intention of having this information included in the new edition. “Oh no madam, all that information is on computer and cannot be changed." In this day of computer technology I find it unbelievable that such an inclusion cannot be made, especially as the Government departments will again be listed in the front of the new book. Hospitals, like the ambulance, fire and police are public services and should be listed as a group and in the case of hospitals, with their visiting hours.—Yours, etc., RAE COLEBOURNE. November 28, 1981.

[Mr M. J. Williams, Chief Postmaster, replies: “The fundamental purpose of a telephone directory is to enable people to simply and quickly obtain the telephone number of a wanted subscriber. While the information contained in a telephone directory serves a number of other general purposes, the publication is not intended to provide general information and the difficulty that arises is in drawing a line between what is essential for the basic purpose of the directory and what is extraneous. A study of the earlier style directories before restyling in conjunction with the conversion to computer-based production,

showed that there were many listings with extraneous matter such as advertising material, long business descriptions, visiting hours and the like, none of which had anything to do with the basic purpose of determining a subscriber’s telephone number. It was decided, therefore, in the interests of simplicity and economy that all listings in the alphabetical section be confined to the name, address and telephone number of the subscriber with, in the case of business listings, a brief description of the nature of the business and after hours contacts. There are a limited number of exceptions, the most notable one being that of the Urgent Pharmacy where the hours of attendance, which are considered to be essential to the nature of that business, are included. In the case of hospitals, visiting hours are usually available elsewhere such as in the local newspaper. This approach has generally been accepted by hospital boards. In introducing these changes it was recognised that some general information previously appearing in the alphabetical section might no longer be available to the public unless some alternative means was available. To cover this, provision has been made for a heading "Hospitals” in the Yellow Pages and it would be possible for any information about visiting hours to be placed in advertising form in this section."]