"Exceptional care"

Anything else?

I spent a month in the care of hospital staff at Stanmore, from initial appointment, to surgery was around 6 weeks.

Yes, the fabric of the hospital is a little run down, but what makes a hospital is its staff and the care they give.

The food menu is exceptional, I'd have given up food at one week if I were in my local hospital. Having a proper choice of meal is superb and I really think it helps your recovery as you are eating something you stand a chance of enjoying, I must say however I was disappointed in that I was not properly woken for food on a number of occasions despite being under the care of the dietician, meaning when I woke up my food was stone cold and inedible.

The medical staff, kept me informed at every stage, were caring and took me to a private room when informing a cancer diagnosis.

The nursing staff were superb, looked after me incredibly well, even suffering my request to open a window while exceptionally hot when in reality it was exceptionally cold and snowing, and would be still smiling when being asked for the third or fourth time at night for some help of one kind or another.

There are only three things I can fault, one while in the HDU, a member of nursing staff gave me too many tablets. Instead of 3 white tablets 100mg each I was given 3 yellow 300mg tablets of the same medication, had it been 12 hours earlier I would not have been in the position to have been able to notice the mistake.

The other slight misgiving I have was with an agency nurse, she was quite happy to announce things in a very loud voice, things which I was embarrassed about my personal hygiene care being announced loudly so that other patients and visitors could hear.

Thirdly,there is a severe lack of physical hand washing facilities for staff on the ward.

Overall this is an exceptional hospital, with exceptional staff who go far beyond to make what is a hard time in your life a little bit easier.