"I felt safe in the hands of professional..."

What I liked

Professional, efficient and friendly service and excellent accommodation.

What could be improved

Giving the prescription to the patient if the Hospital Pharmacy does not have the medicine that the patient needs; the day I was discharged from the hospital (Thursday, 9 June) after having a major operation, I was told that the medicine that I needed was out of stock and was asked to come back the next day. As I could barely walk after the operation and did not want to ask my friend to go to the hospital to collect it, I asked the nurse if it was possible to get a prescription so that I could ask my husband to get it from one of the local pharmacies. However, I was told that it was impossible because the hospital did not give the prescription. So, I asked my friend to collect the medicine for me the next day and she agreed. However, when I rang the hospital the next day (Friday) to find out if they had the stock, I was told that the pharmacy did not operate on Friday and was asked to get the prescription from my GP. As it was Friday, I had to have my prescription on that day rather than waiting until Monday. So, I had to ask my neighbour to drive me to the GP to get the prescription. I don’t really think that giving a prescription to a patient (especially, when the hospital pharmacy does not have the stock) is a big inconvenience for the hospital and would cost the hospital a lot but it would save unnecessary hassles for the patient. So, I really believe that being sensible and getting rid of this unhelpful practice (hospital cannot give a prescription to any patient) would help the patients a great deal.

Anything else?

I wasn’t really looking forward to having a major operation nor did I expect to have a good time before/during/after my operation at the Pembury Hospital. However, to my amazement, because of the complete professionalism, very precise & skilful work of the Consultant Gynaecologist & Obstetrician (& their team), the excellent work (GA & Spinal process was quite painless – I heard a lot of awful stories from my late mother, who also was an Anaesthetist) and the kind explanations (of procedure & side effects) from the Consultant Anaesthetist, the great care and assistance of the day & the night nurses from the Gynae Ward (Level 3), the helpful tips from the Physiotherapist, the willingness of the porters, kitchen staff and the admin staff of the Pembury Hospital, and having a new & clean single en suite room with TV, plenty of natural daylight and views over the surrounding forest made (what I thought to be) a challenging episode enjoyable. I’m sincerely grateful and would like to thank everyone (that I mentioned above) for making my stay at the Pembury Hospital so pleasant.