bed-blocker n. a patient who will not or cannot be moved to another medical facility, either due to a shortage of beds or because of the patient’s refusal. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...
Steve, a singer-songwriter from Rock Springs, Wyoming, shares some slang he picked up while months riding the rails and busking. Spanging refers to panhandling, from asking for “spare change.” The term bull refers to a type of security...
why are some people ‘bed blockers?’ could it be because when they became ill, they were not consulted about their diagnosis, their prognosis and medication? In January of this year, the general practitioner was called in to see my mother who had become extremely ill in an ‘assisted living scheme’. The G.P., a very experienced man of some 50+ years of age, diagnosed a heart attack. Mother was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed as having a ‘chest infection and concurrent uti infection’. She was never told what was wrong with her (no diagnosis). She was never told what the outcome of her current ‘crisis’ would be. She was never asked if she would accept the medication prescribed. She was administered an antibiotic and steroid treatment and sent home. It is some 4 months later now and we are still suffering as a consequence from this initial hospitalisation and so is she. At 84 and in poor shape, this may well have been the ‘ideal’ time for her to have died – with dignity – instead of suffering the horrendous problems she has, since that time.