"mixed"

What I liked

Surgical team: great communication, clear explanations, and able to answer any questions.

Nursing care: Some nurses were wonderfully professional and caring. They made my experience more plesant, simply by caring.

Physiotherapists: great service, good advice and tips.

Cleanliness: the ward was wonderfully clean (apart from the food menu which had food stains on it), and was constantly cleaned throughout my stay.

Anti-bac: I felt more confident in Broomfield due to the pre-admission anti-bac routine - ok, so it was incovenient to wash in anti-bac soap for 5 days before admission, but it gave me confidence in the hospital's approach to infection control.

Pre-admission checks: the anaesthetist, in particular, was very helpful in explaining the procedures and listening to my concerns.

In theatre: I always find that the most lonely part of hospital admission is being wheeled in to theatre alone, with no friends or family to wish you well. But, the theatre staff were kind and caring, and put me at ease. Mind you, then they put me to sleep!

What could be improved

Food: On the ward was a person whose job it was to take orders and serve the food. But, they seemed a little fickle - they didn't like giving out fresh fruit, and seemed a little off hand with some patients. They seemed to find their job very stressful.When they were not on shift, there was a completely different and calmr attitude to food service.

The food was not of a good quality - all cook-chill, and microwaved on the ward, served on plastic plates which fitted neatly over a china plate. The menu I was given had food stains on it.

Nursing care - it would be nice if the nurses realised that sometimes patients are capable of articulating how they feel, and that sometimes it is worth listening to the patient. Nursing care varied according to who was on shift at the time.

Nursing notes - on reading my notes, I noticed that certain incidents had not been recorded, or recorded in a subjective way. Some of these incidents may prove important to overall care - eg there was no record of the three times that I was actually sick - although one was recorded as merely feeling sick.

After having quite major surgery and spending 6 days in the care of Broomfield, the hospital was quite happy for me to leave alone and find my own way home. No patient transport was available. A bus journey would have taken three hours. Taxi fare was £40. But... noone seemed slightly concernd that a posst operative patient was travelling home alone.

Anything else?

The section above (what could be improved) needs to be improved. It tells me that i have 56 characters eft out of 2000, but will not post because i have exceeded 2000 characters! This needs to be improved

I have continued below:

Continuation of what needs to be improved!

Aftercare: despite promising to arrange for district nurses to come in to help me change dressings etc, this never materialised. I phoned to remind the ward, and even phoned the consultant's sec - no help!! 5 weeks later, I am still leaking goo - but well, never mind.

Not sure that I like the shopping mall mentality. I am concerned about potential confidentiality as patients' names are flashed up on very public screens. I would not want the general public to be aware that I was waiting for an appt!

Over

Basically, i am not sure whether I would recommend Broomfield. I have now had experience of similar procedures in 3 hospitals in Essex, so feel qualified to make certain comparisons. Where Broomfield comes out top on cleanliness, and on communication via doctors, the nursing care was patchy and inconsistent.

There is no way I could ever commend the food - as the service and quality of food simply did not inspire me to eat. Even staring at the food stained menu, I could not decide on any meals. And yet, noone seemed concerned that I decided not to eat. I wonder why there is such a large queue at M&S at lunchtimes.

But the aftercare, and lack of transport are the main issues I feel the hospital must address. To be so unconcerned that a patient should travel home alone worries me. To fail to arrange for aftercare in the form of district nursing i