"ENT Care hopeless, Cardiology, Lister Unit,..."

What I liked

Very little.

Having unfortunately needed to be a regular almost continuous patient at various depts. of this and St. Marks for over 25 years I have to clarify first that I have had no problems with any department but the shambles and chaos that is the ENT dept. and mostly, from personal experience, Clinic 10, which is ridiculously sited on the junction of four corridors where passing foot traffic has to walk thru' patients queuing at the reception desk which itself is way too buried almost hidden, behind a panel that puts the receptionist out of touch literally with patients trying to be heard and/or understood as patients, visitors and service staff walk thru the queue.

Further, the inner door to the reception almost permanently has a member of staff entering or leaving, talking, distracting the receptionist who often has to, or chooses to, walk into the rear of the dept. returning with coffee, sometime cakes, patient priority seems way down the list.

Doctors & consultants walk into the clinic and without seeing their patient list, call in patients they clearly have a friendly relationship with, so any time waiting order is ignored.

A certain group of patients do not seem obliged to use the hand cleansing gel as they enter for their appointment, whereas, all other patients are, why?

I personally had such poor attention given to my now serious medical condition that after being summarily discharged without even examining my medical problem, taking just six minutes in June, I'm now having urgent surgery, having already had two different cancers in two years, a formal complaint to the GMC regarding the first consultant will follow and potentially, further.

I also intend to invite the media to take an urgent close look at how many complaints are almost certainly being made about a chaotic dept. that has no proper management structure .

What could be improved

The location of Clinic 10 is appalling.

Perhaps too often medical students are invited by the hospital to be present, creating a distraction for each respective consultant as they seem to explain more to the students present than the patient being examined.

The paperwork to which I am entitled, I have still not received and in fact I only got a copy of the CT Scan Report following my previous appointment in April 2012, two days after I made the discharging consultant at a 6 June appointment, aware I intended to make a formal complaint.

Too many casual changes of consultant are decided at the reception desk, thus mistakes are made. Patients are treated simply as numbers.

Anything else?

The ENT Unit is dis-organised and chaotic, and it's performance from my experience confirms that.

Reorganisation of the layout of the Clinic I believe is essential, in addition, having audio testing around corner means even calling a semi deaf patient for their test involves medical staff having to walk thru' any queue at the desk, to then walk back thru' with, or in addition to the patient, it's madness. The layout reminds me of a South American small town railway station, with everything crowded together.

The receptionist should be outside with the patients, or, that area of small consulting rooms needs changing around. A large, empty inner waiting area for patients to sit again, and look at three sliding doors, why?