The Insider's Guide To Hospitals

Are you, or is someone you know, about to go into hospital? Here are 10 crucial pieces of advice from the nurses there who know the inside track

You’ll get better faster if you move

The sooner you can be up and about, the less at risk you’ll be of complications such as chest infections that can knock back your recovery. ‘Ask your nurse what they’d like you to do to help yourself get better quicker,’ says Joan Pons Laplana, who works in the NHS in Norfolk. ‘We’ll know what’s safe and expected. It may be as simple as sitting in a chair, but it’ll help.’

Have just one family contact

If you’ve got a big family of concerned relatives, designate one person to call the ward and check how things are going – and then have them call everyone else. ‘Nurses have a lot to do every day,’ says ex-surgical nurse Emma Soos, now MD of The Women’s Health Clinic (thewomenshealth. clinic). ‘If they’re telling seven people the same thing about the same person, it takes up some extra time they often don’t have.’