"Good Staff: Bad Facilities."

Anything else?

My father recently came here for a throat biopsy in the short stay surgical unit. As my father has complex needs I was very happy that a hoist and air mattress were provided without much difficulty. The staff were very understand and compassionate, especially the surgeon and anaesthetist who were kind enough to provide answers to our questions and inform/reassure us about the procedure without rushing. However, the room that were were in (side room 2) had a broken toilet door, so the facilities were not really usable. In addition, the ventilation in the room was broken so it was ridiculously hot in the room and the staff did not know how to turn the ventilation/air con in the room on.This would be annoying for anyone, but my father has MS and heat exacerbates his symptoms quite severely. The last problem with the facilities in the room was that the electric bed only worked sporadically, which made moving my father in and out of the bed very difficult (he has no voluntary movement below the neck so a hoist is needed for this). In addition, refreshment is difficult to access if the cafes are closed and you don't have any change. Although there is a cash point, the vending machines only take change, and there is no change machine; so if you are going, make sure you take some change for the coffee machine.