"Mother in laws stay in ARI."

My Mother in law was admitted to ward 216 in January 2018 for repair of her aortic aneurysm. She was admitted in a timely manner, she  had several blood tests, scans and examinations. She was then sent home as the planned day for theatre had to be cancelled. A thorough explanation given in a caring manner was given and she  happily returned home.

She returned a few days later for theatre the next day which all went to plan. She was in theatre for over 10 hours but ward staff were very kind to my husband/son of the patient when he phoned on a number of occasions to find out how things were going. She returned to cardiac ITU where she received a very high standard of care from all the clinical team. No question was too much trouble, the new welcome ward is amazing at keeping families together at their time of need and my mother in law was cared for in a dignified compassionate way. The only  comment she had was that the medical team when conducting the ward round never spoke directly to her! Please speak to your patients Doctors-they do understand and its very basic communication skills to look at someone when talking about THEIR care. Please be person centred on the ward round. She remained on ITU for over a week and her amazing nursing care continued right through her stay. When well enough, she went to 217 briefly and then back to 216 for the remainder of her stay. Whilst here she continued to receive the very best care on the whole. We had a few issues with equipment and hands  not being cleaned in between patients but I spoke with the senior charge nurse who gave an extremely helpful answer saying he would deal with it as it wasn't good enough and I completely believed him. He dealt with the few issues in a very professional competent manner.

My mother  in  law was finally discharged after 3 weeks in ARI and our family are extremely grateful for the care she received from medical/nursing staff, physiotherapists, domestics, lab staff, kitchen staff, porters to name but a few. Well done ARI for the best experience we could have hoped during a very stressful time for our family.