"A good hospital with more exceptional people than..."

What I liked

My operation for bowel cancer was actually in July 2006 and after five years' follow-up appointments I have now been discharged. I wrote a letter to the trust in August 2011 detailing my experience over the five years and naming some members of staff who "walked the extra mile" to help me. I quote the end of the letter:

"If I have made all this sound like a delightful holiday, it wasn’t. There was worry (terror even), uncertainty, pain and all the general misery of being ill. Of course, little things weren’t always perfect along the way. The fact that I look back on it with gratitude and not hatred is due to the extraordinary dedication of those members of staff, and their teams, mentioned above.

As pressures mount and structures change in the trust it is easy for the appreciation of the skills and dedication of staff to be lost, even for faithful servants to be cast aside. Please don’t fall into this trap – you will be the poorer for it if you do.

The loyalty they display may be more fragile than it appears. Please value it and nurture it.

With Kind regards, Dave Fisher."

I met some very special people from consultants to cleaners. Thanks.

What could be improved

One can always find small niggles and things will always go wrong sometimes in any large organisation, but overall my care was excellent and my nursing care was exemplary.

Anything else?

Ultimately our hospital only works because of the staff, so many of whom display a dedication beyond what might be expected. If they only did what they were paid to do it would grind to a dreadful halt accompanied by banner headlines.

The management of the trust does a difficult job in allocating resources and seeing the whole place works as well as it possibly can. It has displayed its expertise in guiding the trust to Foundation status - a success story in itself. In the midst of its challenges it must never forget to value, nurture and cherish its staff, upon whom its succes depends.