"All staff are doing their best and..."

What I liked

All staff without exception were caring, cheerful, friendly and efficient. Nothing was too much trouble, and both nursing staff and doctors took the trouble to answer any of my questions as fully and clearly as possible.

The wards were clean and the food for the most part perfectly acceptable.

What could be improved

IPlease would nursing staff be more strict with visitors.

It is extemely stressful when feeling tired and unwell to have to listen to the seemingly endless raucous voices and laughter of other patients' visitors; one patient had up to 7 visitors at a time every evening - the ward filled with the nauseating smell(some of us are unwell, remember) of their junk food and sickly sweet drinks and the incessant noise; oh how I longed for eight o clock, reduced to tears of exhaustion when they overstayed by 5, 10, 20 ..almost 30 minutes one night. Oh how I dreaded their appearance - sometimes from as early as 4pm, signalling 4 hours of stress to come. I'm sure in any other circumstance they were lovely, caring people; I didn't want to cause any ill-feeling by complaining, and i did try to cut out the noise with my tv, but my time on the ward (no doubt others too) would have been so much less stressful if the "2 visitors only" rule was enforced (of course exceptions at the sister's discretion) and visitors were made to behave considerately and leave on time. I feel ill when I think back 2 years to when my 85yr old father spent over a month on a ward. He was visibly distressed and exhausted as similarly lax attention was paid to visitor numbers and behaviour. His fellow patient once (I was there) had no fewer than 10 visitors at one time, including children. And even when the visitors went home he was tortured by constant visits by noisy patients from other parts of the ward "partying" until 10pm. He suffered dreadfully.

A friend in in another ward was constantly stressed by "all night partying" of visitors, thus putting her health, and that of her unborn child at risk from her raised blood pressure. It is very important that patients can receive visitors. But they also need rest, both physical and mental. Please ensure ward staff are sensitive to the needs of all patients by enforcing visiting regulations.StressCheerfulCleanlinessDrinksFoodOpening hoursProfessionalismReceptionWardDoctorsNursing staffAttentiveConductChildrenHypertension