Hospitals consider banning bedside flower bouquets

Monday, February 22, 2010 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: hospitals, flowers, health news

(NaturalNews) In an effort to prevent what they believe may cause patient health complications, some British hospitals have begun banning flower bouquets from hospital rooms. Citing the possibility of infection from bacteria in the water and the ill-conceived notion that flowers may use up all the oxygen in the room - even though plants actually release oxygen - some hospital officials are up in arms over the alleged dangers posed by plants.

Researchers from the Imperial College of London decided to survey hospital patients and staff to get their take on the situation. They found that most patients appreciate having flowers around while many staffers dislike them because they can be messy. Few made any correlation between plants and an increased risk for disease or infection.

Virtually all scientific research has shown that flowers pose no health risks to patients, yet many hospitals continue to cling to antiquated superstition that they are somehow dangerous to patients. The vast majority of studies have revealed that flowers have both immediate and long-term benefits for patients.

Aside from improving general morale and mood, flowers have been shown to increase patient memory, lead to fewer cases of postoperative analgesic application, reduce blood pressure and heart rate, and decrease pain. Though obvious, controlled studies found that patients who have flowers beside their beds are much happier than those who do not.

Simon Cohn, a medical anthropologist, sees the hysteria over bedside flowers as indicative of a trend in health care towards regimented, outcome-based delivery rather than relationship-based care of patients.

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

It's hilarious, really, to think that hospitals would ban flowers out of a fear that they might make people sick. Should they also ban sunlight, too? How about banning laughter while you're at it?

With few exceptions, hospitals are death traps. They are not places of healing; they're places of health deterioration. And (nearly) everything you experience at a hospital is bad for you: The laughable "food" you're served, the re-circulated air, the artificial lights, the onslaught of medications and even the tap water (which is contaminated with fluoride).

Flowers might be the one thing that's actually good for you in a hospital, and now they want to ban those, too. Why am I not surprised? Allowing patients to experience joy would be counterproductive to the whole agenda of suppressing their healing response...

Sources for this story include:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-...
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/339/d...