"Great care on Ward 42"

This story has been posted by Healthwatch Tameside on behalf of a member of the public. We have their details and will forward any comments to them. They said…

He is 74, diabetic and never been in hospital before. He attended Ashton Primary Care Centre as he wasn’t feeling too well. The Doctor checked him over and decided he needed to go to hospital straight away and rang for an emergency ambulance. In the ambulance they said he needed to go to the nearest hospital which is Tameside. He admits he was a bit worried because of some of the stories you hear about it. Anyway, on arrival at A&E, despite there being about 3 people on trollies in the corridor, he was taken straight through and examined by 3 doctors. He then had to wait to be transferred to AMU, but within 2 hours he was there. He reports that it was night time and he was cold but the nurses on AMU were extremely kind and attentive, one nurse piled 6 blankets onto him and then kept coming back regularly to check on how he was. Nothing was too much trouble.

All together he was in the hospital for 3 weeks, with most of it spent on Ward 42, although the first week he was very confused and wasn’t aware of much. However, over the remaining 2 weeks he says all the staff, Consultants, Doctors, nurses, porters and cleaners were all caring committed and very attentive. He was watching them with a patient who was 93 years old and they were fantastic and patient with him. The food was brilliant, 3 meals a day, there was loads of choice and the cleanliness was second to none, the cleaners were in every day cleaning round all the beds. As he was getting better he enjoyed having a laugh with the staff.

He reckons that if the rest of the hospital is like ward 42 then inspectors should come and spend a week on there and see how hard the staff work. “I can’t speak highly enough of my treatment at Tameside General Hospital. ”