"Professional and friendly nursing staffs are the..."

What I liked

I'm not sure if I picked the right department in the drop down menu as I had visited the Planned Investigations Unit for an issue to do with my blood - hence why I picked 'haematology services' as the closest available on the list.

I've only returned yesterday from what was a four night/five day stay and I just wish to praise the nursing staff that I met there in the South Green Ward on the ground floor. Over the time I was there I met with a number of them especially as I was woken 2-5 hourly for tests and met those who worked during the night too.

I cannot fault not one of them for anything. This was my first time to this hospital, this area of London and to being a pre-arranged inpatient so everything was a bit strange for me. From the onset of my arrival they made me feel comfortable and, it wasn't so much that they went out of their way to do things or requests for you, they just did their job with their own professional, polite and very amicable nature. This is what I expect from anyone if I treat them in a courteous way and unfortunately with my local hospitals this isn't what I get in return the majority of the time I have had to deal with their staff. Even my family who accompanied me on that first day at the PIU was surprised by the manner and promptness of information (that they didn't need to do) of the Healthcare Assistant who had shown me to my bed and settled me in.

I really don't want my review to sound so 'Disney-que' but even when two other patients I shared the four bed ward with and I were leaving at the same time, whether the atmosphere was a true one or not, it felt as if we were saying farewell to large friendly family that had given us bed and board for a few nights! Either way I left there with a huge respect for the job they do and good impression of the hospital as a whole.

What could be improved

Like I said I don't want my review to sound like a Disney film but I really had to search hard for something that wasn't quite right. There are two very slight points that wasn't really a big problem but could be upgraded or easily remedied:

1) I personally would have liked one of those Patientline monitors that have an individual TV, radio and phone per bed. But that said other patients may not have liked the cost of its use, there is a Patientline phone by each bed, there is a day room that had a digital TV and I had brought my own 7" TV anyway.

2) The Shower/WC room was clean and kept well, the design of the floor of the shower meant that it was on equal level of the sink and WC that were in the same room. After the shower was used not all the water would go down the its outlets and would remain on the floor, so if you went into the room to use it for any other means, there was a likelihood that you could get wet too. There were times I went in and tried to wipes up the excess water with tissues myself as it had spread so far.

What would have prevented this would have been a slight indentation in the shower floor from the floor of the whole room so that most of the water would have stayed in one corner as opposed to spreading out into the rest of the room.

Anything else?

n/a