"Extremely good: the NHS should be proud of itself!"

What I liked

I cannot put into words how wonderful the consultant paediatrician was. It was their first week and their first clinic so he must have been under a lot of stress, particularly as they were still commuting from London. However, they were so kind and worked so hard to ensure my son received the very best care. I have never seen anyone work so hard yet still be so caring and polite. I cannot praise them enough. I would like to say more about how wonderful they were but I will run out of superlatives and even then would not come anywhere near to doing them justice.

What could be improved

The nurses appeared to be uninterested in their job and lazy. They claimed to have carried out a simple test but did not, but I truly do not think it was because they were busy, as they did not seem to be busy but were chatting in corridors. Instead they gave the above wonderful doctor someone else's results (who was clearly v unwell), which led to an unnecessary, anxious trip to A and E. Also, we were sent home with the wrong equipment, and it was only because I returned myself a few days later and said I could not get it to work that I was told I had the wrong gear. Also, these items are to be used only once and I was supposed to have been issued with enough duplicates to cover the length of his treatment. This exposed my chid to a risk of infection.

Anything else?

The wonderfulness of the doctor eclipses the failings of the nurses and so on balance I would say I am happy with the experience and I still think the NHS is absolutely wonderful - not least because we have this facility to give feed back. Also, the porters, cleaners, food servers were polite and efficient. The food was healthy yet appealing and we had a choice on the menu, which was much appreciated. The building was well designed, too. In fact, apart from the nurses, everything - and I mean everything - was exceptionally good.