"My Father was admitted for a total ..."

What I liked

My Father was admitted for a total of four months and sadly died in the end.

His care was split between the ITU and Bluebell A Ward.

Overall, I and all his family were very impressed with the cleanliness and quality of the hospital, the attitude of the staff and felt great comfort in the fact that even though he died, he did not suffer needlessly at any stage and always seemed to be given the best chance possible.

We were welcomed on the wards even outside of official visiting times and staff always made the effort to come and explain his treatments to us in detail.

What could be improved

Communication between departments e.g it took over 3 weeks to succesfully schedule him a slot for a surgical procedure as every time one was booked we were told the surgeons had "run out of time" at the last minute.

The lack of stairs to get to Bluebell Ward was odd and frequently annoying as there was often a queue for using the lifts. Once the lifts had broken and there was no way down at all until a staff member opened a locked door to let us use the emergency fire escape.

Similarly there is an escalator to go up from the ground to the first floor but none to go back down. Why?

Last gripe would be the stench of cigarettes right outside the main entrance. Surely more could be done to either discourage smokers from standing there or get rid of the smoke.