"Good Hope’s external areas "

I accompanied my distressed daughter to A&E with her poorly baby daughter yesterday (15/6/22) we had been offered an ambulance but it was considered quicker to drive. The first car park had out of order on both stations so we went to the bigger one. Sticky tape holding things together! I would have thought the hefty income received could address this. When my exhausted daughter tried to leave the car park this morning with no cash, just a telephone card , the card office was closed until 8am, so despite having no sleep all night, she had to sit in her car until it opened! The way to the cash point had been blocked off as well! Nowhere to park for 20 minutes to return to hospital with fresh clothes for her either. It was utterly chaotic. Unacceptable.

Secondly, walking towards A&E was incredibly unpleasant as there’s a plethora of smokers, many NHS staff included. Not a good advert, when the exterior walls say‘ please do not smoke’. Literally, a line of people lighting up, including a patient with a saline drip. As a recently recovered lung cancer patient, I don’t want to hold my breath attempting to enter a health centre!!

The care of staff within the hospital was very good. Thank you.

Please do something about the exterior Regions!

PS. Why do patients and visitors have to pay so much for parking anyway??!