"Nothing at all expect the student ..."

What I liked

Nothing at all expect the student nurse and junior doctor. They actually cared about the patients and her job.

What could be improved

Medical staff who know about medical conditions. the "Senior Doctor" in A&E thought that HIV could be cured and that my partner's condition was cured rather than well managed (by a completely different organisation).

It's really scary when trained, qualified and experienced practitioners don't know or understand what is a fairly common and well-documented condition. This doesn't give patients any confidence whatsoever.

Until I hear or experience that patient care has significantly improved, I cannot and will not recommend that anybody receives treatment at Stafford A&E. Bite the bullet and go to UHNS!

Anything else?

I thought that the senior medical cover at Stafford A&E back in January 2010 was poor at best. The doctor my partner saw was unco-operative, very difficult to understand and had no idea that incurable conditions are just that - incurable. After asking that we talked to a medical professional who understood what they were talking about, we were left for over two hours with very little contact apart from an excellent student nurse who really seemed to care about her patients and her job. Once we finally saw a junior doctor who was equally as good as the student nurse, my partner was properly assessed, diagnosed and discharged.

Surely this could have happened two hours sooner if the senior staff in the A&E department had been as caring, understanding and frankly as knowledgable as the juniors and students.

I feel that the overall support we received was fair, but only just and saved by the less experienced staff.

It beggars a question - why do all senior hospital staff think they are better than you? This seems to be endemic to the NHS where the higher up the clinical ladder a practitioner is, the less consideration, respect and clinical care they think they are obliged to give to patients.

Had my partner been in a well enough state to formally complain about the service and the doctor in particular, then this is the course of action we would have surely taken.