"The focus was always on our son and he was included"

We would like to thank all the staff involved in our son's care.

From the initial O/P Surgical consultation a huge thank you to the reception staff who were brilliant and without asking spoke with the Matron who agreed to us having a separate room while we waited as the waiting room was pretty busy and noisy and our son would not have dealt with this.

This certainly reflects the incredible work the Disability team have put into all departments ensuring the awareness and acknowledgement of people with learning disabilities is truly catered for - we were seriously impressed. The build up to our son's operation day with the assistance of the disability team ensured that his operation went smoothly. He required major blood screening and this was an ample opportunity to get them completed whilst under G/A. I liaised with the Gp who was agreeable to send the requests over to both the surgeon and disability team and this was undertaken by the anaesthetist. This was very worrying as there were many aspects which could have gone wrong but they didn't and we are very grateful that it went smoothly. Our son's admission was to Knapp ward and he was looked after by Sister Kate who was absolutely brilliant.

The focus was always on our son and he was included with all aspects of his care, he very much liked Kate!! The surgeon and anaesthetist we could not fault they listened to our previous experience with our son's G/A's and followed what had worked previously and this all went without a hitch. Our son's dad went into the anaesthetic room and he stated it was the best experience of putting him under that he had been involved with all the team were fabulous.

The theatre staff from the ward to theatre and on return were just as brilliant and very empathetic towards us all. We left the hospital on a huge high and cannot thank the team in all depts for their brilliant dedication and understanding of special needs this made a very stressful time remarkably pleasant and exceptionally easy.

We wish for other hospitals to take the approach that RD&E has and feel that the Disability team have been exceptional in ensuring the process for visiting families throughout the hospital has been executed and implemented to the highest standard.