The Care Quality Commission 2009 Survey of Patients in NHS Hospitals revealed that patients' experiences had deteriorated or not improved with regard to noise.

• A higher proportion of patients were bothered by noise at night from hospital staff
• There has been no improvement since 2008 in patients being bothered by noise at night from other patients

This is only one aspect of noise (acoustics) in Healthcare. With high background noise levels on wards, alarm signals may be missed, communication can be difficult and the recuperative benefits of sleep may not be fully realised. Whilst the source of the noise may be from staff, patients and medical equipment, it may also come from traffic noise outside or from ventilation systems.