Poole General Hospital

A great hospital overall

As a surprised "urgent extra", I was amazed and massively grateful for the speed and quality with which Poole Hospital responded to my GP's referral. On the same day that I saw my GP, the X-ray dept squeezed me in for the throat X-ray and 5 days later I was sat in front of the Consultant, Mr Elias Francis-Khoury, who, having noted the x-ray, investigated and diagnosed my, happily, non-cancerous condition. He gave explanatory literature and prescribed a course of drugs and these I was straightforwardly able to obtain from the Hospital Pharmacy before returning to the car-park. All in all an exemplary performance from a hospital that already has provided fantastic support for me and my MS, under the direction of Charles Hillier. Knowing the immense pressures that The Hospital is under, I give the highest praise to ALL STAFF who labour to provide such a wonderful service. I am truly thankful.

Our son (aged 6) has a complex medical condition. He has always been treated extremely well by the paediatrics team at Poole - from the day they saved his life, aged three months, to his most recent appointment. The consultant, community paediatric nurse, dietician and play therapist have all taken time to get to know him as an individual rather than as a constellation of medical problems. He trusts them and even quite enjoys his visits to the hospital every few months. There is a very good playroom and some focused work with the play therapist really helped him to be less frightened of blood tests which he still needs fairly regularly. Thank you all!

Treated well cry profess all.

My mother spent 6 months in Poole Hospital after a bad ankle break. She suffered from quite severe dementia and died there in 2008. There were some nurses who treated her with kindness, others who seemed to try to ignore her calls for help. Many times I saw her food tray taken away untouched, I didn't see her receive help with eating and noticed wrapped packages of food which she was unable to open. I didn't think the facility was suitable for a dementia patient. She wasn't able to operate the call button. I saw dust swirling around the floor under her bed. The morning after Mum died, my father went to the hospital to visit her and was told she had died. Nobody phoned him at home. It was a big shock to him.