"Excellent and very reassuring experience of NHS"

I went in with appendicitis and was in over Christmas which was very distressing for me having never been in hospital before. I arrived at the out of hours Dr on my own the Saturday night before Christmas and everyone was so friendly and reassuring at a very frightening time for me. Everything just happened between diagnosis and surgery leaving the only thing for me to worry about was how to tell my mum I wouldn't be home for Christmas. After surgery I then had an infection which extended my stay but was cared for completely the whole time. My only slightly negative comment is that sometimes the nurses treated you like a 'patient' rather than a person and a slightly more friendly service on the ward I feel would have made a very big difference at such a difficult and very lonely time but I know they were very busy and doing their best. A smile meant more than any drugs at that time and some nurses and other staff were very friendly but the staff changed a lot over this period. The ward was very clean but sometimes the bathrooms weren't and there was no where to put towels and clothes apart from on the bins which made it very awkward when I was in a lot of pain and not very agile. Sadly I couldn't eat much but when I could I was very impressed with the meals available. It was a lovely small and quiet hospital and I am really glad I ended up here by chance rather than my closer very big central London hospitals. I want to thank all the very hard working staff from the lovely porter, Dr I initially saw, a and e staff, surgeons and other Drs, nurses, cleaners, caterers and everyone else and wish you all a very happy new year Jenny