Thursday 14 December 2006

My Experience Of The NHS

Last week I had a heart palpitation which was bad enough for me to go to hospital. The thought of going to hospital at 9.00 pm filled me with dread. Previous experience had convinced me that I would be there for hours before I even saw a doctor. So I arrived at the hospital with two fat books in the expectation of a long wait. But to my surprise I was admitted to accident and emergency within minutes and was undergoing various tests. What was also different from my previous visits to hospital was the way the staff, both doctors and nurses, told me exactly what they were doing and what would be happening to me. I was kept in hospital overnight and fortunately allowed to go home the following afternoon. In the time I was there I had three ECGs, my blood sugar and cholesterol measured, a heart scan, a test on the treadmill.

I know praising the NHS is not the done thing at the moment and a headline reading 'Man goes to hospital and receives excellent treatment' would not appear in any newspaper. But I would like to record my thanks to the staff of the Accident and Emergency Department and Cardiac Unit at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan for the superb treatment I received and wish them all the best for Christmas and the New Year.

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