"I am very grateful that our community is served by..."

What I liked

September 20th

I write to recognise the excellence of the staff in the A&E Department who received me at approx 0545 this morning and who treated me with such kindliness, competence, and friendliness. I was soon made comfortable and my pain and distress was quickly relieved.

Having struggled with many hours of pain and much discomfort before getting to A&E I would everyone to know how much I appreciated their efforts on my behalf. I was and am deeply grateful.

September 21st

I was grateful for the promptness of my next day appointment for further investigation and wish to commend the consultant in Surgical Assessment who saw me, by which time my extreme discomfort and pain had returned. He listened as I explained how I felt, asked some questions, examined me, explained what he had diagnosed, and prescribed accordingly. In particular I was grateful for the reassurance that my condition was not due to cancer but to an infected prostate gland.

What could be improved

With hindsight I would have appreciated some advice before leaving A&E around 0945 on September 20th about how to cope with the discomfort and pain which gradually returned over the rest of the day and the following night. Late afternoon I did take a paracetamol tablet which had no effect whatever. When I got to Surgical Assessment the following day I had taken nothing else to relieve my condition in case it would interfere with whatever treatment would be decided. So during my 45 minute wait to see the consultant I was suffering quite lot without any way of relieving it.