"Excellent Treatment After Accident"

I had a motorcycle accident last year, with 17-odd fractures in both arms and one leg.  Terms like 'disarticulated', 'meat porridge' and 'mince' have been used to describe my injuries. ;)

From the MERT team at the side of the road, to HeliMed and Raigmore Hospital, treatment was excellent.  Everyone was upbeat and encouraging, and I found myself sharing jokes with A+E, trauma and surgical staff as I was treated.  

Once I was on the orthopaedic ward, the nursing and auxilliary staff were top notch. Special shout out to Andrea the Charge Nurse, who led a team of fantastic nurses working really well despite the obvious shortage of numbers.

Also credit to Angus for fantastic teas and meal service, and Dodge, who chatted while he chauffeured me to X-ray multiple times over my stay.  I was seriously messed up with my injuries, and these people kept me sane.

My one criticism was that the OT people I saw seemed under a lot of pressure to have me out of the bed, and were less willing to listen to what I actually needed with hardware to be able to return home - which I desperately wanted to do.  But once I got them to listen, everything was put in place very quickly.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience.  I've travelled a lot, and lived in Australia, and I'm very happy to say that having experienced the Scottish NHS, Australia has the *second best* public health service in the world.