King George Hospital 2020-07-30 Person 4 5 0

Since we have been living with this dreadful virus I have lost people that are lose to me and with my own health problems I have been terrified each time I have had to visit a hospital. this year alone I have had to attend appointments in several hospitals from St Bartholomew's to Southend hospital and with each visit I was more and more horrified by the lack of care given to protection from covid-19. You can therefore understand that I have been in a state of near panic for the last few days and woke this morning with a knot in my stomach and had to force myself to attend this mornings appointment. Still I arrived with over half an hour to spare and then had to stand in line to enter. The man that greeted me spent a little more than a second looking at my appointment letter before telling me I was early and would have to come back in twenty minutes as they didn't want me in to early. As you can imagine my heart sank as I explained I couldn't queue again as there was at least a dozen people behind me. He answered with surprising reassurance telling me that the line would be clear before I returned. As I watched from the bench across the road he addressed each inquiry quickly and with patience directing some or walking them inside. In the twenty minutes I had to wait he dealt with at least another ten people after the queue that I was in. When I returned he saw in though to a foyer area were he instructed me to use the hand gel that was provided, then in very simple terms told me how to put on a face face but asking me to use the hand gel again and when I asked why he told me I had touched my face and it was better to be safe. He then directed me to his as he put it colleges who checked me for a list before showing me to a room for screening were my temperature was taken and I was asked the usual questions. It wasn't until after I had finished my appointment and was on my way home that I realised that I had felt safe in a hospital for the first time in months and on reflection that was all thanks to the small team of people controlling access and trying to follow the guidelines for wearing a mask and social distancing. MY DEEPEST THANKS TO THE TEAM ON THE ENTRY DOOR AT ING GEORGE'S HOSPITAL. YOU HAVE RESTORED MY FAITH IN THE NHS.