the national health service!

LondonDiva

Good to hear positive experiences.:T:T

Waht I would strongly urge is that if you want this experience to make a difference would be for you to pop a quick email or letter to the Chief Executive.

S/he and the board will, by law, hear all about the bad./nasty things leading to a complaint but no one ever makes sure that the people at the top learn about positive comments.

Most people will sned a card or chocs to the ward, but especially in these days of cut backs, they are very bad at selling themselves or even making sure that the good news gets heard:)

Hope the recovery is less stressful:)

zztopgirl

Have loads of good and bad stories, the staff in the itu are brilliant. No doubt about it.:A Dh nearly died in 2004 and everyone was just great, even the staff of the hospital canteen (where i wasnt supposed to go but i had to eat) were lovely to me. The only person i didnt like was the doctor who had to tell me to prepare for dh's death, i refused to listen to him.

I find staff on normal wards dont care as much as staff of the itu. Dh was in last year and it was me having to sort out his medication, his care needs, etc, the nurses just werent bothered. He was left without his daily meds for almost 2 days. Thankfully he was ok. I was appalled by the carelessness and the dirt, blood on the floor beside his bed, dirty toilets, the care assistants who went around shouting and swearing without a care in the world.

I always feel there is more i should do than taking in flowers/chocolates/thank you cards or raising money, but a nurse once told me that seeing a patient who was expected to die recover well and go home, is all the thanks they need. I took dh back to the itu a couple of times to show them how well he is doing but i know i'll never be able to thank them enough.

Impet_Limpet

it nice to hear good comments from "customers" of the NHS. I work in a new cardiac investigations unit I see people on wards, outpatients, recovery and checkups. it makes me think i do actually do something useful when i hear a thankyou!

butterfly72

I agree it is nice to hear some positive stories. Its a shame the media pick up on the bad experiences so often. I'm a nurse in a medical assessment unit in the NHS and I'll tell you that on my ward at least we work so so hard. we do 12 hour shifts (with a total of 1hr for breaks!) To come home and hear the media slating us is just demoralising.

and to zztopgirl.... choccies are appreciated.. they keep us going when our blood sugar is low!

For all its faults... you'd miss it if it wasn't here!

vik6525

To be honest, Ive never had a bad word to say about the nhs... Whenever Ive been ill, ive never had a problem getting a gp appointment, i mentioned above about dhs experience, and when my dad had cancer, they were just incredible... we may only ever hear the bad things in the media, but my god, in real life this country has amazing healthcare!