"A BIG thank you!!!!"

I would like to show my gratitude and appreciation to the staff of Chestnut Ward for the way they treated and cared for me.

I was admitted to Darent Valley Hospital in January 2014 after suffering a minor heart attack. Although I was initially taken up in the CDU and was happy with the treatment there, I was transferred to Chestnut ward. I was discharged on in late January and transferred to St Thomas hospital in London.

As the NHS has received so much negative reports in the press as of late I felt it appropriate to request you to extend my gratitude and thanks to all staff who looked after me and my fellow ward patients. As this was my very first experience of spending some time in a hospital in Britain and seeing for myself how the hospital “machine” works I can only testify of goodness and praise to all staff for their contribution in making my NHS experience such a pleasant one. I witnessed very difficult and demanding patients being handled with the utmost care, professionalism and tenderness at all hours of the day or night. No task was ever to big or to difficult for the staff and they treated everyone with respect and dignity at all times.

The beds were tidied every morning and if a person were discharged or moved to a different ward, the complete bed and mattress was washed down and obviously made up with clean linen.

It was very apparent that whenever staff came into the ward they would use the hand-cleaning agent at the end of the beds and repeat it when moving on to a next patient.

It must also be mentioned that the choices and quality of food at dinner times also requires the highest praise. I completely understand that I would not always get the dish of my choice but understand the enormity of running an organization as complex as a hospital.

So once again please convey my sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone from the cleaner through to the shift sisters for making my hospital experience such a special and positive one. Please also pass my thanks on to the doctors in particular doctor Sidhu for the work he and his team did and for always keeping me in the loop and continuously updating me of proceedings with regards my angiogram.