"I was admitted to A/E recently with an..."

What I liked

I was admitted to A/E recently with an exacerbation of an ongoing problem & was very impressed with the care that I received. I was seen almost immediately by a nurse who introduced herself to me, smiled (which makes such a difference to patients) & explained what was going to happen to me - I have been to the same A/E Dept with the same condition several times so had a good idea of what would happen but was very reassured by the fact that she didn't assume that I would know what was going on & was prepared to offer explanations to me. A Sister walked past my trolley & also smiled. It was the middle of the night & they were incredibly busy, so they must have been very tired & can't have felt that they had much to smile about at that time of the morning, but the fact that they made the effort to do so was very much appreciated. The Department was very clean & seemed to be run in a very well organised manner. All the staff seemed to work well together & all the patients, including myself, were dealt with in a kind, calm, sensitive, professional & timely manner with compassion & occasional humour where appropriate & every member of staff that I saw either personally or who were attending to other patients behind curtains was polite & patient - one occupational therapist showed unbelievable patience with a presumably confused patient. The privacy & dignity of the patients was obviously very important to the staff too. The A/E doctor who saw me was polite and friendly in a professional way, introduced himself, explained his plan of care & then when he thought of a better plan came back & discussed & agreed it with me. I felt that he also listened to what I was telling him - which is not always the case with some doctors, unfortunately. The Consultant too, introduced themself, was approachable and I felt that they were listening to what I was telling them. Well done A&E!

What could be improved

Nothing about the hospital itself but a small minority of the patients were rude, ungrateful, selfish and inconsiderate and seemed to think they were in a hotel rather than an Emergency Department. The patient who decided to burst into song in the early morning. was particularly not appreciated! Unfortunately there is little if anything that the staff can do about such patients.