"Good care at Derriford Orthopaedics but poor wheelchair access"

In general, I have had a very good experience of the service. I was sent by taxi, my husband came with me and we didn't have long to wait.

We spoke to Rachel who works in Orthopaedics and she said she wanted me to see a consultant. There was a clinic that afternoon so the consultant was very busy, but she arranged for us to see the consultant within a couple of hours. We had travelled quite a way so we didn't mind waiting, in fact we really appreciated getting an appointment so soon.

The consultant was brilliant, they explained everything - the appointment was exactly what I expected and they made suggestions. The consultant said that if I wanted an operation, he would do it but he wasn't sure about the risk of infection. I appreciated his honesty and professional advice.

I spoke to my physio Gill the other day and she has already received feedback from Rachel, which is very prompt. I think this is excellent.

I have only two gripes.

Firstly, I did object to being sent a letter from my doctors saying that I would be contacted about the appointment with the consultant within 7-10 working days. I was not contacted by Sentinel until 14 days later.

Secondly, the disabled toilet in the main entrance to Derriford Hospital used to be really big, and allowed plenty of room for manouvere. It's now been made smaller, which makes everything very difficult. There was a screen in the way of the toilet door which I complained about but now the toilet has been made smaller which is really not very thoughtful in terms of accessibility.