"My stay at Ward 1 QEH"

Anything else?

I was admitted to the hospital via A&E, spent a night in a side room at A&E, was then admitted to Ward 1 for (Acute Ward) six days and then spent an overnight stay in ward 11 before being discharged the following day. I therefore had plenty of opportunity to observe the staff, particularly in Ward 1. I would like to say that i was greatly impressed with all the nurses and support staff. They were professional, worked well as a team and individually, often in difficult circumstances. They treated the patients with dignity, respect and were never condescending or patronising, which I found very refreshing. I saw the nursing staff deal with very difficult patients and visitors and they dealt with concerns by answering their questions to the best of their ability. If they did not know the answer then they found someone who did. Both day and night teams worked equally well and they always maintained a sense of humour and were constant in the delivery of the service that they provided. The cleaning staff were excellent and paid attention to detail. The cleanliness of the wards was, from what I could see, also down to good supervision by the cleaning management and the matron of ward 1 who obviously kept a tight ship. I could not fault the food. It was was always delivered on time, was hot, nutritious, functional, varied and considering it was canteen prepared, tasty. Well done to the catering staff who have to cater for the varied requirements of the patients. The doctors and consultants were excellent, explained everything in detail and from what I could see, treated the patients at the right level of understanding, again without being patronising or off hand. I would like to thank all the staff, from the support staff to the doctors who all did a brilliant job in making my stay at the hospital as comfortable as possible. The only criticism that I have of the hospital in general is the thoughtless behaviour of patients and visitors who loiter in the no smoking entrance to out patients department, puffing away without consideration to others, resulting in the smoke entering the reception area. I believe that efforts are being made to address the problem and I wish those that have been tasked to deal with the problem all the best.