"The Lunch Club is Fabulous!"

My active 89 year old mum has been admitted to Mayday via A&E this week.

We have been hugely impressed with the service from the point the ambulance and paramedics arrived through A&E, Rapid Assessment Medical Unit to today on Wandle Ward. She is still being cared for by attentive, skilled and compassionate staff (all staff groups).

The wards have been clean, staff polite, friendly, helpful and thorough. All staff have introduced themselves by name which has made a huge difference.

My mum was taken to the canteen yesterday by the Dietician and was introduced to the 'lunch club' run by an extremely dedicated and passionate volunteer, a wheelchair user himself who was the perfect host.

The lunch club helps people get away from the clinical ward environment and eat in a pleasant setting with other patients. With the offer of a wholesome, free, three course lunch, lively conversation, laughter and a change of scene - this is a brilliant idea and extremely well delivered. There is no doubt that initiatives such as these support recovery and quality of life for the hospital patients who are able to access it.

A superb example of delivering quality for patients in a hospital which is clearly striving for improvement all-round.

I would like to thank the member of staff who runs the lunch club as well as the Dietician who co-ordinates it as this was a real boost for the people who attended it.

I would like to suggest that the CEO of the hospital trust and other managers pop along to join in one week, to see the selfless commitment of the people involved and the positive impact on those who go along. It would be nice if this service was featured in the hospital services magazine.

A big thank you to all the staff at Mayday for your dedication, humour, dancing (!), relaxed interaction, good communication and great clinical care. We appreciate you.