"Life saving, excellent treatment."

What I liked

99% of all of the staff were absolutely fantastic. They were kind, supportive, professional and very skilled in their work. The Doctors worked tirelessly trying to cure my 18 year old Daughter of what could be a fatal illness. The nurses in all departments from the A&E, SAU, HDU and then on to Edith Cavell ward helped and supported her throughout her stay. A ward assistant washed my daughters hair and made her look and feel better about herself. A cleaner brought us a cup of tea when she saw us pacing around waiting for my daughter to come out of theatre, the porters reassured my daughter and us and tried to keep her morale up. A fantastic team of people, the hospital should be very proud of its staff.

It was a very clean environment. I was at the hospital at all times of day and night and always saw teams of cleaners going about their work.

What could be improved

More regular updates on her progress could have been volunteered. I found it difficult and felt awkward to keep asking to speak to a Dr to enquire about her progress and plan of treatment.

I mentioned that 99% of staff are fantastic but unfortunately a small minority of nurses let the rest down and need to take a close look at themselves and ask themselves wether they really should be in a caring profession. My daughter called me in the middle of the night as she was in absolute agony. When I arrived I saw a nurse sitting reading a magazine while my daughter was crying in pain, no more than fifteen feet away from where she was sitting. In my opinion that is totally unnacceptable.

My daughter had cannulas and bandages in both hands which made it difficult to carry out personal hygiene tasks. She asked to use a commode which was brought and left with her. Without giving too many details this ended up being a disasterous mess and she was left without being cleaned or helped by the staff. Both of these experiences occurred during the night and spoilt what would otherwise have been excellent treatment. Perhaps there should be better management of some night duty staff who appeared to be there to do their hours and go home while doing as little as possible.

Anything else?

I feel quite sorry that I have had to criticize what was otherwise a brilliant service which saved my daughter's life. However as I have mentioned, a small minority of nursing staff need to be improved or leave the profession.

If this is read by anybody at Basildon is it possible to put a link on here explaining how we can have a meeting with a manager to discuss the treatment that we received. I hope it would be useful for us to recognise the brilliant work while pointing out the shortfalls in the hope that others are not affected by some of the poor staff.