"Ethos of patient centredness"

I want to express my appreciation for the excellent care I have experienced whilst under the care of this hospital for pancreatic cancer. At all times the consultant, specialist nurse and the dieticians took great trouble to ensure all matters to do with my diagnosis and management were fully explained and understood and always available to answer questions by phone or email.

The general ethos of patient centredness was something I encountered on my first visit, standing waiting for my wife, my outpatient letter in my hand, a man in hospital garb walked past, stopped, turned round and asked if I was alright and knew where I was going. My daughter also reported the same experience when searching for whichever ward I had been moved to. She said she never needed to ask as someone always asked her.

The nurses I encountered on each of the various wards shared in the ethos of patients centredness and I was greatly impressed by the comment of one nurse when I made a remark to her that the duty consultant seemed very nice. She responded that “they are all nice – and they work so well as a team”. I asked her if the nurses also felt part of the team. Her eyes literally lit up “Oh yes! They all take the trouble to learn all our names” Covering so many wards this must be a large number of nurses.