Share review of Mr Norman Briffa

Mr Norman Briffa 2014-07-07 Person 5 5 0

I needed to have my aortic valve replaced recently and Mr Briffa was designated as the surgeon. My first meeting with him occurred when I was retained in the hospital ( Northern General Hospital in Sheffield) following an angiogram that was obviously not good. The angiogram consultant said I could not go home until an operation date was set and that it had to be within 2 weeks. Shortly afterwards Mr Briffa came to see me and not only did he develop a plan very quickly but he personally phoned, in my presence, whoever was responsible for creating the operations schedule and arranged a date for my operation. The impression this gave me was that he was a decisive person who made sure that what he wanted, would happen. I like people like that! I immediately went home; returned on the day for the operation: had the valve replaced and went on with my life. I only spent 5 days in the Cardiology Dept at the this hospital. That might seem quite short for a major operation but I had been well prepared. The Dept runs an educational programme and have pre-operation and post-operation classes which are very useful and worthwhile. I was also very impressed by the care given to me on the ward. Everyone seemed to have a great attitude. They were very competent at the job and had a friendly manner, no matter what you asked them to do. I can't say the experience related to this operation was good because I was very concerned about the outcome for most of the time. However, I know that I couldn't have been cared for by a better group of people and I thank them all for that.