"Excellent A&E triage followed by first class..."

Anything else?

My husband, Peter, began suffering chest pains and aching arms earlier in the week but had ignored the symptoms as they went away quickly as soon as he rested. On Friday morning I decided to phone our surgery and this led to our G.P. phoning Peter and advising him to go straight to the A & E department at St Peter's in Chertsey, where he arrived shortly after 09:00. The triage system worked superbly to ensure that he was sent straight through to the treatment area where, within five minutes of arriving, he was given an ECG and blood test.

By the time I arrived from work about half an hour later, a doctor, who diagnosed a probable heart attack and explained everything very clearly to us, was interviewing Peter. I was allowed access to him immediately on arrival and was included in all the discussions. A cardiologist made the decision to keep Peter in overnight and sent him to the coronary care unit.

The team in the coronary care unit continued the excellent level of service and communication. We were impressed by the cleanliness and reassuringly calm sense of order in the ward and once again, staff explained clearly to us at every step what was going on and what might happen next, and never once did we feel patronised or excluded. Peter also said he enjoyed the food.

We were told that Peter needed to have an angiogram and possible angioplasty and we were fortunate that he could receive this procedure on Friday evening. By Saturday he was already feeling better than he has felt for several weeks and months. The consultant saw him in the early afternoon on Saturday and he was discharged with his new medication soon afterwards. Once again, the nurse on duty gave us a full explanation of the medication, how to take it and what it was for. She also showed us a diagram of the heart and showed us clearly what damage Peter’s heart had suffered and what the angioplasty procedure had achieved.

We are extremely grateful to all the staff concerned and Peter continues to feel better.