"Outstanding care so far"

My son has been severely depressed for some time and was admitted by ambulance on Saturday having attempted suicide by taking a massive overdose of his normal prescription medication. Everyone, from the paramedics who attended him at his flat, to the doctor and nurses in A&E, to the staff on Cardiology were amazing - efficient, friendly and professional. The paramedics phoned from the ambulance to let us know where they were taking him, how he was and what they were doing (we live 100 miles away and were driving up). When we arrived at the hospital we were surprised to be able to walk straight into A&E Majors and not be challenged. Our son was conscious, but being closely monitored as he was very sleepy and his heart was going crazy (he has a heart condition and the pills he had taken were affecting it badly). A doctor came and explained he would be moved to the Cardiac ICU so they could continue to monitor him and that, if he was OK after 24 hours, he would be medically discharged but would then need to be seen by the Mental Health Crisis Team. At every stage everything was explained to us and our son. He moved to CCU and the staff there were incredibly understanding about the fact we had travelled so far and, once again, the epitome of kindness and professionalism. We left, with the staff promising to contact us should there be any changes, and we felt sure that they would. Next day our son was well enough for the monitoring to stop and for him to be medically discharged. Someone from the Crisis team then spent 1.5 hours talking to him and arranged follow-up counselling and gave him emergency numbers to contact and recommended different medication. We were horrified to learn that the antidepressants prescribed by his GP both at home and in Nottingham had been at such low doses they were totally ineffective - no wonder he was not getting better! The Crisis Team member also discussed our concerns with us. We don't know what our son discussed as the talk was in private, but he was much calmer, more rational, had a definite plan for at least the next few days and decided to stay in Nottingham although we wanted him to come home. If the follow-up care is anything like as good as the care in hospital our son will be very lucky. We cannot thank the staff of QMC enough for everything they did for our son and their consummate professionalism. In our experience of hospitals, usually someone tells you something is going to happen, such as a procedure or a move, and then nothing happens, or you end up having a procedure no-one told you about, but that was not the case at QMC. Everyone did what they said, shortly after they said it would happen. Amazing!!