"Fracture Clinic - design issues"

Anything else?

I am no architect, but on my attendance to the hip clinic, 3 weeks post THR, I was struck by the lack of thought given to meeting the needs of patients like myself - no raised seating, anywhere,including the toilets, no means of undressing in the changing room, no wheelchair access to consulting rooms, and no means of examining the left leg for the surgeon: the couch was hard against the wall. Whatever the budgetary constraints, the building and design of this new clinic represent a wasted opportunity, ie to listen to the views of those actually receiving and delivering care before committing to a design. My experience was no better in Charing X, where I was admitted as an emergency via A&E 12 days ago. Neither there nor in the surgical ward to which I was admitted were there suitable facilities - raised loo seats etc. A possibly overstretched staff could not neutralise the effects of these design flaws.