"Hospital Staff - The Best"

Following two days of sickness, a blinding sore head, sore neck and finally double vision I was admitted to the A&E department at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

My illness, diagnosed as a Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (SAH), was managed by numerous NHS clinical staff across four different hospitals over a period of 26 days and I would like to provide feedback on each of these including NHS24 with whom the initial contact was made.

NHS24

My wife contacted NHS24 on a Saturday to describe my illness and seek advice on what should be done. NHS24 asked a whole pile of questions and we were told that a nurse would call back within three hours. Within this three period I developed double vision and my wife called them back and she was told to take me to A&E at the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy.

Now at home and recovering I’ve had time to reflect on the whole incident and I’m annoyed that NHS24 asked my wife to take me to A&E. Had anything happened on the route to the hospital my wife would have been helpless. Reviewing information publicly available my symptoms pointed to a bleed within the brain. The NHS Choices leaflet also states if you have the symptoms that I had then dial 999 and request an ambulance. I’m therefore extremely surprised that the staff within NHS24 didn’t draw a similar conclusion and send an ambulance to my home. My daughter drew the conclusion of a bleed using Google and I would have thought that NHS24 had far more sophisticated software to aid diagnosis.

This is the second time I have used NHS24 over the last few years and frankly it will be the last as I have been disappointed with the response on both occasions.

Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy

Saturday night at any A&E in the country is never a good time to arrive. My wife dealt with reception and we were asked to wait. Again given my symptoms I would have expected NHS24 to liaise with the Victoria Hospital and to have at least provided them with some kind of diagnosis that may have prevented our 1. 5hr to 2hr delay to be seen by triage. Given my condition, I think arriving by ambulance would also have negated this wait.

Once seen by triage it was a further 2 hours till I was seen by a doctor and at this point things started to move fairly rapidly. A number of scans were conducted and a SAH was confirmed.

The A&E staff were excellent and I was made ready for a blue light transfer to the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh.

Western General Hospital, Edinburgh

This was my first of two visits to this hospital. This first visit was potentially, as far as I’m aware, for invasive surgery but it was decided that conducting a coiling operation would be a better option. Within only a few hours I was again prepared for a blue light transfer to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow

My memories of this hospital are few but my family says I was well looked after by all the staff from both wards 60 and 65 and worthy of specific mention are:

Dr Maria, surgeon who conducted the coiling operation; and

Linda and Mary both from the high dependency ward.

I remember being at this hospital for 3 days but apparently I was there for 10. Thanks to all of you on both wards 60 and 65, you have given me my life back.

Western General Hospital, Edinburgh

I was transferred back here on for 8 nights for acute care. The staff in this ward (32) were brilliant and they were genuinely interested in patient recovery. I was in room C and developed a great rapport with most of the staff. At this point I still hadn’t accepted that I was ill and I just wanted to get on with doing things myself. The staff, along with my family, were fairly blunt with me after I had fallen when trying to make my way to the toilet without assistance. The bluntness was appreciated and exactly what I needed to pull in the reins; thank you.

Staff worthy of mention are:

Dr K (Can’t remember the second name);

Karen;

Julia;

Michelle;

Emma;

Stephen (night staff);

Billy; and

Mercy – Domestic staff, this lady never stopped from the minute she arrived on the ward in the morning.

Thanks to you all on 32, you were great.

My only negative comment about this hospital is, with the exception of the morning porridge, the food was simply not great at all.

Cameron Hospital, Windygates

Never knew this place existed. It’s for rehabilitation and boy they know exactly what they are doing here.

The atmosphere in the hospital is less hurried than acute wards, the food is really good and the staff are so helpful. Dr Sloan is probably the calmest person I have met in my life, which just fills you with confidence. Sarah is super informative and always made time to answer my questions. She was exceptional in explaining medical stuff in a way that I could understand.

The physio staff (Alison and Bruce) worked with me a few times and made me realise that a slow but steady recovery is required. The OT staff certainly tested my brain with the questions they asked and I appreciated making the bacon and egg roll in the kitchen.

My only negative comment about Cameron Hospital is the patient call alarm. Does it have to be so loud and ear-piercing?

I can’t remember everyone’s name but Karen, Norrie, Isobel, Lynda and Kenny made my stay special. Thanks to you all, you play a vital and essential role in getting personnel back into normal life.

Summary

The clinical staff in the NHS hospitals I visited are, without doubt, some of the best people we have in this country. They are hard working, caring, extremely professional at everything they do and are the backbone of our NHS.

There is one group of people I also have to mention and they are the ambulance staff that transferred me on three separate occasions. I don’t remember any names but I know I was looked after. My daughters did say that the ambulance staff who took me from the Vic to the Western General “were lovely”.

I'm fixed, well on the mend and I love you all for that - Thanks :)