"an excellent experience - long live the NHS"

My 85 yr old mother was admitted 3 weeks ago to A&E by ambulance having fallen down the stairs. She went straight into resus where scans revealed she had broken a vertebra in her neck . Damage in the fall also meant a large injury to her leg needed immediate attention. The nurses, doctors, on- call orthopaedic registrar and plastic surgery team treated my mother and family members with great respect and kept us informed at each stage of her treatment and explained their reasoning given so many departments were involved in this emergency.

My mother then spent 2 days in the AAU before being transferred to the Lord Wigram ward. In both of these departments she was treated with the utmost respect and found everyone was very kind and professional despite the fact that everyone was worked off their feet caring for a number of dementia patients and for people with very complex needs.

She was then operated on by the most incredible plastic surgeon who achieved the most extraordinary results of closing her leg wound with a skin graft all under local anaesthetic.

She was then transferred to the Chelsea Wing where she continued to get wonderful follow up care from an appointed team of physiotherapists, plastic doctors, orthopaedic doctors. Continuity of care was ensured as my mother passed through the hospital by considered handovers by all of the departments involved and by the very high level of professionalism of the nursing staff.

In fact my mother was so well cared for that it is difficult to fault her medical care during the nearly 3 weeks she was in the hospital. We would all like to thank everyone who reassured us all along the way and has made it possible for her to go home today on the road to recovery.

The NHS is not perfect but it made me feel very proud to see that despite a lack of staff and funding it still produces such a high calibre of care and medical expertise .

Thank you all.