My heart always sinks a little when I have to go to QEH, because it's a long way from me (at Rowlands Gill) and because of the soulless site, it feels at the back of beyond. With the RVI there is the city to enjoy and the Freeman is a designed site, compact, with a canteen and shop to hand when you arrive. By contrast, with its several entrances and higgledypiggledy design, the QEH raises no feelings in me other than sadness. Newly diagnosed with stenosis of the spine which makes walking painful, my visit to the QEH two days ago did for me for the rest of the day. I remembered the number of my car park but there are parks all over the site and nary a bench to sit on, and in fact it seems there is a determination to stop patients sitting down, except in the hospital. No map was included with the appointment, and when I looked up the internet site on the letter (and what about all the elderly people who aren't online?) the department I was visiting, Radiology, was not in the index. Hopeless. Considering the hospital takes £2.50 for any length of car stay, a few pennies spent on a good map, with advice about which entrance to use for which department and clear directions to that department, would cost little and help patients a lot.
"Ouch"
About: Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Gateshead) Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Gateshead) Gateshead NE9 6SX
Posted via nhs.uk
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