Nosocomephobia

Nosocomephobia is the excessive fear of hospitals, a specific fear in which the setting of a hospital, rather than any particular illness, provokes dread. Its name joins the Greek nosokomeion, meaning hospital, with phobos, meaning fear. The account in the source notes that a hospital stay takes away a person's sense of control over their own life once they are admitted, which a New York University clinical professor of medicine, Dr. Marc Siegel, describes as an understandable reason for many people to feel uneasy about being hospitalised. The former United States president Richard Nixon is said to have had an irrational fear of hospitals and to have refused treatment for a blood clot in 1974 for that reason. The record here is descriptive and is not medical advice.