Hospital care without equal

8:55am Tuesday 15th August 2006

I hope a brief account of my own experience of health care received in an NHS hospital might serve to reassure some of your readers awaiting treatment.

With reports of the lack of hygiene, inadequate facilities and understaffing in NHS hospitals appearing almost daily in national newspapers, I had come to regard the possibility of receiving major surgery in an NHS hospital as something to be avoided at all costs.

Then came the bad news. What had started out as an almost 'routine' examination of a suspected arthritic knee developed rapidly into urgent necessity for complex surgery.

Imagine my dismay at being faced with the infamous 'NHS Ordeal by Bedpan' - an unsavoury mixture of the MRSA bug, unhygienic, worn-out old buildings and nursing staff compelled by a lack of resources to muddle through as best they can.

The staff of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford, laid my worst fears to rest.

The standard of care and support from consultants, registrars, therapists and nurses was not just good but, in my opinion, utterly superb and without equal.

In that atmosphere of kindness and compassion, the road to recovery became a gentle journey made smooth by the warmth and friendliness of everyone concerned.

Thank you, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, for showing just how good the NHS can be when its practitioners are allowed to get on with the job.

Patricia Blount St Andrew's Road Henley