Manchester Royal Infirmary

This is a marvelous hospital full of dedicated hard working staff. The vast majority are wonderful. However, I had major surgery on a Friday afternoon and found a big difference in the care I received over the weekend. First it was impossible to sleep at night as alarms on drips etc were allowed to sound continually. One of the nurses on duty over the weekend had a very uncaring manner and when I asked her if she could possibly help me to sit up she just told me to make an effort to do it myself - this was only 24 hours after my operation and I had had a spinal anaesthic and was on a morphine drip. She was reluctant to give me alternate pain relief even when specifically instructed by the duty Doctor to do so, and I was left for three hours in agony. When the shift changed on Monday morning the change in the care and compassion was night and day.

Care on the ward following surgery was exceptional.

The monitoring of food intake was not good. No one checked the amount of food consumed while a patient on ward 8 for 2 weeks.

I was looked after very well throughout my stay at the hospital. Everyone was kind and supportive and helpful. I think I did not receive timely information always, only because the surgery was planned very quickly. And my specialist nurse helped me very well to ensure all falls into right places.

I have had experience of same day surgery in MRI and while at times the volume of patients and the busy departments makes for an incredibly busy stay, I felt that the staff were caring, informative and made sure I felt comfortable and addressed any questions I had.