"Excellent experience with wards F5 and F6"

Anything else?

My mother-in-law has recently passed away after suffering a very severe stroke. She spent her last weeks being cared for at St Luke's Hospital.

Right from the outset we were reassured of the cleanliness and care being shown to her. This was very important to us as the stroke left her unable to speak and completely bed ridden. Therefore, knowing that the staff were taking good care of her by keeping her clean and turning her regularly took off a lot of pressure in what was a very stressful situation for us.

But the excellent nursing staff went well beyond this. Whenever my mother-in-law felt distressed, the nursing staff would take the time to calm her down and sit with her. We also noticed, whenever we visited, that they did this with other patients, too.

The staff always tried to keep us informed as to what her situation was and would make time to answer our questions.

Finally, when my mother-in-law started to deteriorate and slip away, the staff showed her respect and patience. They allowed us to be flexible with our visitng times, not just restricting us to the set times, especially on the last day. On the day she died, they allowed us to stay with her in the morning and through the afternoon, and when my husband visited her in the evening, he found one of the nurses sitting by her bed holding her hand so that she wasn't on her own. We were very impressed with this level of care, as by this time she was not long conscious.

Lastly, at 11.15 that night one of the nurses took the time to ring us so that the whole family could be by her bedside when she slipped away. This particular nurse said that it wasn't in our notes to call us in the night, but she felt we would want to be there. Thanks to her initiative we managed to get to her bedside just 15 minutes before she died. This was an anwere to our prayer.

There are so many criticisms of the NHS - some of them justified - but we cannot praise or thank this department enough. They are all a credit to the nursing profession and to the NHS.