"Outstanding treatment from nursing staff and physiotherapists"

I had Elective surgery treatment for spinal decompression and spinal fusion in March

I would like to thank the NHS generally and RSCH Guildford specifically for my recent “Elective Surgery” treatment.

Following previous consultations with Mr Paremain, I attended his Trauma / Fracture clinic in early February for pre-operation tests.

7 days later I was admitted to the Elective Surgery Unit at Guildford at 7: 15 am. Amazingly I was discharged late afternoon the next day.

I had dressings removed at a local doctor’s clinic just over a week later and received follow up Physiotherapy 2 days later February and again just over two weeks later at RSCH.

In early April I attended the Outpatients’ Fracture Clinic for a 3 month check and I am due to attend a final appointment to see Mr Paremain in early July.

The procedure performed by Mr Paremain on my back was a Spinal Decompression and an Instrumented Spinal Fusion of vertebrae 4 and 5. As Mr Paremain had performed a similar Spinal Decompression on my left hand side 6 years ago (100% successfully), I had requested that he did the recent operation - a matter of trust that you will understand! The NHS was co-operative in letting me come down to Guildford for this to happen.

I have not been disappointed. As before, once the initial post-operative pain had subsided, I was pleased to experience a complete relief of sciatic and other related pain – another 100% success. I am just awaiting my final appointment and x-ray to confirm the spinal fusion has permanently taken.

Throughout this period your staff have been courteous and considerate – as well as being cheerful. I have a good comparison to make as the previous decompression was carried out in a Private hospital (Company Insurance – I am retired now! ). I had a private single room which seemed an advantage at the time, but I enjoyed the company of the other recovering patients in our small ward. Maybe the food there was better – but not by enough to matter. To me, the main thing was the treatment by your nursing staff, physiotherapists etc. which was outstanding. Congratulations!

In order not to be complacent, there is always room to improve something. This is not meant as a complaint either of specific staff, or of the management generally, but one process could possibly be “smoothed out”. There was a bit of a delay for me and other patients awaiting discharge. I understand that to eliminate the risk of confusion between patients’ notes, prescriptions etc. the process was linear with one patient being “processed” at a time. This meant that the discharge nurse paid multiple visits (probably with waiting time) to the dispensary whereas one visit may have been sufficient. Could this also be true for other elements in the process? I think that if this could be improved, it would not only help the departing patients, but release beds sooner enabling bed making and then admission of new patients a little earlier.

An example of very good efficiency was demonstrated to me on my visit in early April. I saw one of Mr Paremain’s doctors after a wait of about 5 minutes. We had a brief consultation then he sent me round to X-ray. I waited about 5 minutes there, had 2 X-rays taken and then returned to the doctor. Another 2 minutes’ pause until, as I entered his consulting room, I could see my X-rays already up on his screen. You can’t beat that!

I would like to close with a positive “Thank You” to all your nursing and physio staff including Mr Paremain and the anaesthetists for just about the best experience I could have received throughout, in what is a very serious delicate operation close to my spinal cord.

With my very Best Wishes to all