"The medical experience was satisfactory, the..."

What I liked

Calm, organised, Medical service.

Visitor Wi-Fi available in the Outpatient waiting area.

What could be improved

When I phoned to book a Blood Test appointment I was told to 'go straight to the door, don't take a ticket'. This meant almost nothing to me, because I'm not a regular user of Ripley Hospital. Having entered the Reception area there was no obvious sign indicating 'Blood Tests this way'.

I made my own way to the main Waiting Area, and still found no obvious signs. I asked a member of the Reception staff and was told 'Down the corridor, turn left at the end', with the air of someone who had said it a thousand times before. This in itself supports the case that the signage could be improved.

It was only as I entered the corridor that I saw signs saying Blood Tests.

I saw a Ticket machine, but also saw a likely looking door, so went there, only to realise I was almost intruding into a patient treatment area. Perhaps because it was an 08.30 appointment, but there was only one other person in the ticketed waiting area, and he left as I arrived. I'm not quite sure why there are two 'appointment' systems, it seems to add confusion to the visitor experience.

It would have been better if the Visitor Wi-Fi available in the Outpatient waiting area actually worked.

I had a wait of 2 hours, as part of the procedure, and planned to use my PC. The medical staff were comfortable about this. Internet access was not essential, but would have been useful.

When the PC was switched on, it found two DHIS WiFi networks. One was Secure, and presumably for use by staff, the other was unsecured and appeared to be for non-employees such as myself.

When I actually tried to access the internet I was asked to log into the Network. Of course, I had no ID. I asked the Reception staff about this, expecting to be issued with a short term ID and Password. They could not do this, and explained that IT support couldn't or wouldn't enable the system to allow non-staff users to login.

Why is an unsecured WiFi network provided, if non-staff users can't access it?

Anything else?

The drop down for "The service/department you visited was" does not contain 'Blood Tests' or 'Phlebotomy'.