"Oldhams' Excellent ENT Department"

Anything else?

After 15 months of dealing with the appalling North Manchester General Hospital including going to their A+E at 01:30 having been choking, and my wife calling an ambulance out on another occasion due to breathing and choking difficulties. The first time I waited 4 hours (when there was only 2 of us in the waiting room) for a doctor to shine a light down my throat and inform me everything is fine. The day I arrived in an ambulance both my wife and I were told there was nothing they could do and when we asked about the possibility of an X-Ray we were told "We don't want to expose you to any un-necessary radiation! - I've never had an X-ray in my life and I'm 39.Both the Excellent Paramedic my wife and I were shocked. He then went on to say NMGH doesn't have an ENT department anymore. (Why was I taken there or at least why wasn't I subsequently advised to go to a different hospital? We left the hospital dejected, upset and still with the feeling my throat was closing up, as you'd expect this causes me panic when I feel my airway will be obstructed. Having seen 4 GP's, 2 nurses(GP Practice), a dentist and a maxillo-facial specialist and two visits to A+E no one was interested in my problem, 3 yes 3 of the GP's failed to even look in my mouth or down my throat. I don't know what they were thinking, but patient care certainly wasn't on their minds. Having changed GP practice I presented myself to them and explained that after 15 months this problem in my throat is not getting any better, it is getting much worse. They recommended I visit an ENT Specialist, and advised me to go to NMGH, when the letter came from the Trust it had a selection of Hospitals, I'd never been to Oldham Royal but preferred it over the terrible NMGH. WOW - The minute my wife and I walked through the door we were impressed, immaculate corridors, excellent signage, helpful smiling staff and just a feeling that it was a professional organisation. It got better, we arrived at the super-clean ENT Department to be welcomed by a highly professional young lady on the desk, she advised they were running 30 minutes late, at least we were told. Throughout our wait to see the specialist we were kept informed and treated respectfully (after all most attendees are in constant pain). Entering the treatment/investigation room both my wife and I were amazed at the thoroughness of both the Specialist Doctor & Nurse, we had progressed more in 20 minutes that we had with NMGH and the "Surgery" for the last 15 months. Again the room was immaculately clean, modern, temperate and Hi-Tech. I was then passed to another superbly friendly and professional member of the ENT team who explained fully on what was going to happen in the hearing test, again modern hi-tech environment with modern clean equipment. I was then whisked to another room for blood collection again the Nurse was excellent. My faith in the NHS has truly been restored, NMGH should learn from their sister ship.