"Decor & Furnishing in The Therapies Hand Clinic"

I feel I must make a comment as a patient as well as a member of staff. I have been and still am receiving treatment in the Therapies (The Hand Clinic). I have nothing but praise for the treatment, care and consideration from the amazing Karl. Unfortunately I cannot praise any part of the waiting area and consulting rooms in this part of Therapies. It is a very unpleasant place to sit and wait as well as being treated. A very small cramped, dark grubby looking waiting area, wheelchair space is questionable (you would have to have good steering skills whether you were bring pushed by someone or maneuvering the chair yourself), mismatched chairs, a very tatty looking bookcase and that just the waiting area!

The large treatment room looks like a badly converted storage room. One wall of the room is all windows with old cast iron window frames that badly need replacing. These windows look out to the road that runs through the middle of the hospital so everybody who walks past can see in (other members of staff often wave as they go past). It is extremely cluttered. with equipment, boxes even staff lockers! other smaller treatment rooms are exactly the same dated, grubby, untidy, mismatched furnishing. But one main complaint I to have mention is the large generator that sits just outside the treatment rooms. Obviously this needs to be on 24/7 and because of that patient and therapist have to speak loudly to one another in order to hear one another. I fortunately do not have a hearing problem but I am sure there are many, many patients that do and it must surely cause problems for both patient and therapist. It has the most irritating and constant noise besides the smell whether the windows are open or not. Being told to try and concentrate on your exercises with this constant groaning from the generator makes it even harder work and a very unpleasant atmosphere to be treated.

This whole part of Therapies needs a complete refurbish from floor to ceiling for both patients and staff. Where I work in the hospital is certainly no palace but compared to this place, it is. I feel very sorry for the amazing staff who are stuck in this dismal place all day and for patients like myself who have no choice but to attend there. I am well aware that funds are always an issue within the NHS but this place looks like it has been neglected for a very long time. A couple of new plastic lamps and a few cheap looking pictures on the wall is not the answer to brighten this area up. It needs refurbishing now !