"A wonderful hospital, that deserves more praise,..."

What I liked

I was in and out of Hospital for about 4 months with gallstones, and all the staff were fantastic, there was one on Lavenham Blue who on my first day on the ward, sat and chatted with me for 30 mins, when her shift had ended. And the same had happened when I gave birth to my son in feb, the Midwife I had, was wonderful. All the staff I had been treated by were kind and considerate, some of the HCA's were not as nice as they could have been.

My mother has also recently been in hospital, and found all the staff kind and were willing to have a chat with her, and they were very good with the family, they even allowed me to bring my son on to the ward my mother was on very quickly when I came to bring a bag to her.

What could be improved

One of the wards I was on, I felt was unapporiate for myself, I was 24 years old at the time, and I was on an elderly ward, and being with people that needed more care, I found rather upsetting.

The same happened to my mother, she was in a side ward, but found that some of the other patients were in more need of care, and were much more time consuming on the nurses.

Also, I think the Hospital needs to understand that some people may wish to have their children visit them, I was on a ward that didnt allow children on them, while I understand that this is due to MRSA and other infections that could be passed on to the child, my son was only 3 months old and the only time I could see him and my partner was to go off of the ward or into the main reception of the ward, which meant I didnt get any quality or private time with my family.

Also, I did have an appointment that was cancelled, I only found out that it had been cancelled when I got to the hospital, luckly they managed to squeeze me in.

On maternity, I feel it would be better if there had been more pediacticans, as I was left waiting 10 hours to see one to decide that I could leave with my son, the one I did see had been covering 2 different floors!

Anything else?

After hearing all the bad press that the hospital and the ambulance service have been given recently, I felt that I had to say something, the Hospital is fantastic and the few times that I have need to call an ambulance, they were there very quickly. All the nursing staff and consultants were fantastic, everything was explained very clearly and I was included in the process of working out my treatment plan, and they were also helpful when I discharged myself at 1 point.

I cant express how grateful my family is for the treatment we have recieved over the years, and I can't fault the hospital at all, with the frontline staff, but I do feel that there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians, as numerous times I heard the nurses say they were understaffed, as was the case in Maternity.