"Cannot praise them highly enough"

I became unwell at home and needed medical attention urgently. Ambulance services were busy so my son had to bring me to CAH which was no big problem for us.  I was unable to breathe and was in serious distress as my family and I thought I was dying. Once triaged, I was so unwell I fainted while waiting in ED reception to be seen and was rushed to resus. I was admitted and had a second bout of being unable to breathe 24 hrs later and once again ended up in resus.

It transpired that I was a complex case and won’t go into the details for obvious reasons but the care, support, compassion, professionalism I received and witnessed by every single member of the team within CAH was second to none. Every medical person, doctor, nurse consultant, trainee, porter, admin, ancillary staff from many disciplines and departments were incredible. Cardiologists, ENT, Respiratory and ED including ward and others zones were all thoroughly excellent and I cannot praise them highly enough. The 999 call handler was also incredibly professional and compassionate.

If I may, I was seriously concerned to learn that abuse of staff in hospital , whether physical, verbal or psychological is considered to be “normal” by some including many of the staff I encountered as it is so frequent and nothing ever seems to be done to stop it. I find this abhorrent as no one has the right to treat the incredible staff in such a manner. We need to humanise the staff, treat them all with the ultimate respect and gratitude and strive to remove completely this “normalisation” of abuse. Anyone requiring medical attention must take ownership of this, remember that the people they are reaching out to for help are people too , and respect them and not use their fear, anxiety, terror of the situation they are in to justify any abuse of staff. 

A sincerest big “Thank you all” to everyone in Craigavon Area Hospital