"Would recommend based on consultant expertise and..."

What I liked

My consultant was very good and I had faith in his opinions and expertise. I appreciated him taking the time to discuss my condition with me properly. The registrars were on the whole also good, although clearly short of time. I am a doctor myself and appreciate a proper explanation of my condition.

Most of the nursing care I received was very good and indeed some was excellent.

I am very grateful that I was looked after for 2 weeks in this hospital.

What could be improved

The ward was not very clean. My cannula became dislodged and blood dripped on the floor, this was still there 2 days later. There was rubbish in my locker from the previous patient and some rubbish under my bed which eventually was cleaned up.

The food was awful, I didn't expect it to be brilliant, but it was inedible about 75% of the time.

The ward was extremely noisy. This was particularly taxing for me as I had a brain haemorrhage and this renders one more sensitive to noise, but I really didn't see the necessity for the nursing and auxiliary staff to continually shout to each other and bang around virtually constantly. There did not appear to be any protected quiet time as I have witnessed in other hospitals.

There was one nurse for whom everything was too much trouble. I did not appreciate the surly attitude and the fact that when I pressed the buzzer, which was infrequently, it was ignored for long periods of time. Upon asking for analgesia, I was made to wait sometimes unacceptably long periods of time until I was in an enormous amount of pain.

Anything else?

I would recommend this hospital based on the fact that I had faith in my consultant who was clearly an expert in his field. Also based on the fact that most of the nursing care was good.

Upon my discharge I enquired about support groups for my condition and was told that there were none. In fact, there is one that meets in the hospital very close to where I was an inpatient!

The registrar ward rounds in the morning were so so speedy that it was often difficult to ask questions.