"Manchester Heart Centre Day Ward"

The Heart Centre is welcoming, very clean and modern and having read the glowing reviews above of the surgical Wards, standard of Nursing, and professionalism and skill of the Surgeons,

I know I will be in good hands when I have my surgery.

The staff on the Day Ward were very kind, patient and always had time for me should I need one of the nurses.

The procedure I went in for was done quickly and painlessly, and care after was ok.

It is difficult to say why I was shaking with terror as I walked into the small theatre and lay onto the table, without seeming a bad person when I say I struggled greatly with the many different accents of the staff, something which believe me when you rely on a very elaborate hearing aid to hear, can lead to great embarrassment for the patient and the staff who are asked over and over to repeat what is being said, at times I had to guess what was being asked or what I was being told, in all honesty this would have applied of any strong accent, it was just that most of the staff spoke with one.

A Nurse, after attempting to put a canula into my arm told the senior nurse, that they could never get them in properly, when asked the member of staff later who would be doing my procedure, was it a Doctor, Surgeon, or Specialist, they just said that they were non of those but was very nice and thorough and gave me a name, which I could not hear correctly.

The person, who was very kind, came to speak to me, but again they had a strong accent, talked far too quickly and I could understand little, which lead to me telling them how to talk to a person who is hard of hearing, that raising their voice made things worse, that they should slow down and talk clear, they were obviously embarrassed, and so was I. I must admit little consideration, on admittance to the ward, regarding it being a mixed sex ward.

I am a mature lady, I was given a bed inbetween two mature gentlemen, one of whom had his wife and daughter sat at the end of his bed.

Old draped, paper curtains were drawn and I was told strip everything off and put on a gown, which tied at the back.

I did wonder if the two ladies would have done that, probably not.

I cannot understand why, even though firstly shown to a corner bed, why I was deliberately then moved and put inbetween two males, it seemed to me this was done for the convenience of my Nurse, no consideration given to me. One nurse tried in vain to get a reply from my son on the ward phone, later when I could go home and I thank the nurse for their patience and kindness.

If someone was to ask me what scared me, I would say nobody worked like a team, indeed I saw a group of nurses and staff obviously ridiculing a member of staff because of their footwear, they seemed very embarrassed when they came by.

I saw a similar incident much later, thankfully not my nurses.

I have had surgery before, radiotherapy and exploratory procedures, unpleasant but never felt vulnerable, unsafe and shaking, never again, hopefully.