"Such a helpful and careing hospital"

My 92 year old father who was exceptionally fit for his age and had never been in hospital before was suddenly diagnosed with a serious heart condition (Aortic Stenosis) and started to go downhill quite quickly. He has been looking after himself very capably for the past 10 years since my mum passed but he lives in North Devon and I live in Kent. His illness has led to three stays in hospital over the past 6 months whilst waiting for specialist surgery and each time I have had phone calls from his neighbours informing me that my dad is about to be despatched to A&E in an Ambulance. Not able to get to him for several hours I have been amazed at the ability I have had at communicating with both my dad's doctors and the A&E staff. Often the telephone is answered within a few rings: Helpful staff can track down who is treating my dad and within a minute or so I find I am talking to them and getting the reassurance I need on his condition. On one occasion the A&E nurse I got through to said "Hold on, I will transfer this call to the mobile and take it to your dad and you can speak to him yourself". You have no idea how reassuring this is when I am 230 miles away. I get called when he gets transferred to a ward and told how to connect to him. The bedside telephone system allows my dad to get "free" 2-minute calls out to me and whilst the cost of me calling him on this system is a tad pricy again its a great relief to be able to do this and on several occasions it has saved me from jumping in the car and dashing down with a 5hr journey. I can't praise highly enough the way this hospital works.