"My daughter was treated at BCH ..."

What I liked

My daughter was treated at BCH for cancer. The quality of care and the dedication of the staff involved was beyond praise, in a ward that is obviously very understaffed (we were told that it isn't easy to recruit staff to this area, it must be an emotionally draining specialism).

The staff understand the parents and deal with them sympathetically and humanely; and they treat the children how I think the children would want to be treated.

All in all, this hospital and most especially its staff are a shining example of dedication and caring professionalism. My daughter still returns for check-ups and coming back to clinic is almost a pleasure simply through the staff we deal with.

What could be improved

1. The food! Getting children to eat when they are ill is enough of a challenge, but the quality of the food during my daughter's stay varied from 'unpleasant' at its best to 'thoroughly vile' at its worst. We resorted to bringing food in for our child, that really should not be necessary.

2. Parking - there isn't any.

3. Our daughter was treated in the cancer ward and we witnessed things that are distressing for adults, let alone children. However the cancer ward is so unbelievably overcrowded that privacy is virtually non-existent and given that this is for many a very traumatic time, thought should be given to how children who are very, very ill can have a little more peace and privacy while retaining the ability to interact with others.

4. The oncology clinic is chaos - it really needs more resource. When we come for check-ups, being seen an hour late is the average and on one memorable occasion, we were 'forgotten' and we were delayed three hours.