"General surgery - Great Care"

I recently had an eight day stay for reasonably serious abdominal surgery and thought I should write about my experiences. From the Pre op checks a few days prior through to admission all was very professional, I have an aversion to being put to sleep, the anesthetist and her team were very understanding and calming chatted through the procedure. The surgery went well and I was cared for overnight in the recovery ward due to the unavailability of a ward bed for me. The staff in recovery were excellent and although not a ward per se they treated me exceptionally well. Later the following afternoon I was allocated a bed on F7 ward. The full time FPH staff were absolute gems, you could tell they loved their work and were invested in the whole process. The sisters, staff nurses and care assistants were genuinely excellent, they are clearly overworked and I watched them daily caring for their patients, not only for what they were in hospital for but more generally their care of elderly patients, many with serious dementia issues. The way several of them dealt with a couple of particularly aggressive dementia patients was a real credit to the hospital. Unfortunately, I managed to acquire pneumonia, resulting in an emergency situation, the doctors, F7 staff, x ray and CT staff were equally superb and quickly got me on my feet again. One word of caution, not a particular criticism, but I found the agency and bank staff to be of a much lower standard than those working permanently for the hospital, this manifested itself most over the weekend. As a military patient I would also like to thank the QA Duty staff and the DMWS who were fantastic, they visited every day, put my mind at rest and couldn't do enough, they were a real credit to the service and a significant attribute adding much to the hospital In sum, thank you do much to the whole team, general surgery, anaesthetics, ward staff and all subsequently involved in my care - great job.