"Visitor to Brighton, unexpected visitor to A&E"

Anything else?

I wanted to thank the A&E Dept for looking after me on Tuesday 15th Oct. I am not a local resident: I was visiting Brighton for the week so this was my first visit to your hospital. Being a visitor, this meant I had no local GP I could have gone to either. I arrived having had severe back/abdominal pain, accompanied by nausea & vomiting, for approx 12 hrs - kidney stones was the eventual diagnosis. I was looked after by two nurses, through to discharge at around 5.30pm. Apart from welcome light-hearted interludes with other nurses and the doctor who displayed such delight when he discovered my kidney stone was "biggish!!", it was mainly one nurse who spent the day caring for me. I was in such pain on arrival and felt absolutely dreadful; she saw to pain relief without delay and throughout the day I saw her from my cubicle whizzing back and forth tending to others as well as checking in on me every now and then. She worked with urgency and efficiency, in a no-nonsense but caring way. I was impressed, and am so grateful she was there for me. Whilst my day at the hospital was an unexpected detour from my week-long visit to Brighton, I felt I was in safe caring hands. Your chief executive will be a busy man, focussed on strategic matters, budget-setting, etc., but I would be pleased if he got the chance to read this email - your patients don't appreciate the work he does because their experience is principally with the front-line staff. And a boss always needs to know when customers get good service; too often they only hear about complaints. I hope the nurse gets to read this too: she was a gem and a credit to the A&E team. I will never forget her and how she looked after me. Thank you.