"Well done Kent and Canterbury"

During the past year my wife has needed to be treated as both an in patient and day patiient at Kent and Canterbury including an emergency admission. More recently I was also an emergency admission resulting in a four day stay for treatment and investigation. Based on both our experiences we have nothing but praise and admiration for the dedication, attention and couteousnesss extended to us by the frontline medical teams and the support services such as the ambulance and porters. We also found the food to be well cooked, hot and nutrious. We believe the NHS comes in for much undeserved criticism and do wish critics would broader based judgements on the experiences of the majority rather than just highlighting the complaints of few. If we have a criticism it relates to our overall view regarding administration where there does seem to be a degree of incompetence and lack of coordination in dealing with patients appointments and circulation of medical history. It does appear from an outsiders perspective that the NHS has been too accommodating in allowing increasing numbers of staff to work on a part time basis which has in effect resulted in increased staffing and use of agency workers with possibly no proportional increase in total hours worked and a consequential deterioration in communication between staff.