"In praise of Haematology"

Having now moved from Morden to Bognor Regis and therefore in the process of being transferred from St Helier to St Richard’s Chichester, I would just like to express my sincere thanks to everyone in the Haematology department and especially those involved with the out-patients on Wednesdays. Since I was first seen by my consultant, her taking a bone marrow sample (a little painful!) and subsequently being diagnosed with Essential Thrombocythaemia, right up to my last appointment with you this morning, I have been treated with nothing but the highest respect and concern and have witnessed a great level of efficiency. Efficiency which has stemmed from reception staff and being weighed to giving blood – I never give blood easily and the nurses taking it have been the gentlest I have experienced anywhere, to all the consultants I have met. Your department is the only part of the NHS I have witnessed that manages not only to keep to time but ahead of it. Today, for instance: 9 o’clock appointment; weighed, blood taken, results returned, consultant seen, new prescription issued, out of Haematology Department by 9.35. I have previously had cause to be an in-patient twice at St Helier and have also seen three elderly relatives treated at the hospital and, in fact, both my parents died there. I have never had cause for any complaint but the care given to me by the Haematology department has been of an exemplary nature far exceeding anything I have witnessed elsewhere. I can only hope that my treatment in Chichester comes anywhere close to that which I have received from you.