"Excellent Care"

I would like to tell you of the wonderful service I received at York A&E.

A month ago I fell and cut my thumb really badly. I went to Malton hospital where they were able to stop the bleeding and dress it but, they sent me to York as it was too serious for them to treat.

York A&E was very busy and I had a three hour wait to be seen.

However, when I was seen by a nurse practitioner, Sally realised the need for treatment and asked the plastic surgeon Mr Lim to have a look at it.

He was due to go off duty in 15 minutes but seeing my wound and realising the only other option was to send me through to Leeds to an orthopaedic surgeon, decided to operate himself. He had to book an operating theatre and because it was going to be after 6 pm had to secure a bed in a ward for me even though the intention was for me to go home. This he did.

It took over an hour to repair the damage to my thumb. Mr Lim the plastic surgeon did an excellent job, then went way beyond the call of duty to get me to the recovery ward, then on to the ward and then to secure my discharge with minimum extra work for the already very busy staff in the wards.

The wound to my thumb has healed brilliantly; I have received excellent after care from Mr Lim and York hospital. I have suffered no significant discomfort and have had no infection in the wound. The wound has healed barely leaving a scar and I now have very good use of my thumb. This is truly excellent service first by a very conscientious nurse in A&E and then by a very skilled plastic surgeon. York doesn’t know how lucky they are to have such great staff.

The only negative I would make is the abuse of A&E by some patients. Despite this abuse of the facility by patients the staff were brilliant and treated everyone with great care.

However, it was obvious to me that some patients seemed to have learned how to get through the system. This is a problem for the management to tackle, not the heavily worked staff.

On my part many thanks to York A&E, and particularly to nurse Sally  and Mr Lim the plastic surgeon for truly excellent care.