"Tested, but not seen or heard"

Accepted into Addenbrookes and Papworth Hospital following a suspected heart attack.

Whilst I have no criticism - on one level at least - of the many and varied mechanical and biochemical procedures that accompanied my journey through the hospital it seemed to me that I was defined and treated in terms of those procedures.

I received so little traditional nursing .. TLC.. everyone was so incredibly fullfilling external requirements they failed miserably to see any internal needs of me as a person. If only someone during the early days in Hospital had treated me as a person, on a face-to-face basis .. as a subject rather than an object .. listened to me and heard my own interpretation what was going on in MY mind, body and heart .. rather than their external tests.

The sad thing is that I suspect that many of the nursing staff would have loved to give this sort of care but because of the pressures of external procedures no time was available.

Nevertheless, I leave Addenbrookes and Papworth Hospitals with a deep sense of gratitude .. and admiration.