Southmead Hospital

Following my visit as a patient to the nuclear medicine unit today I would like to say how very impressed I was. Many thanks all who treated me with such exceptional care.

The hospital is not my local however attend regularly. Several family members have been treated here and the facilities are always clean and tidy. Most staff are helpful although some can be very rude and unwelcoming especially if you haven't been there before or do not know the process very well.

I think two constructive suggestions. 1. tweek the processes so patients aren't referred to you with serious conditions and then have to wait weeks and make multiple phone calls to find out what's happening. Even if you can't give them an appointment straight away a quick email or phone call would be helpful. 2. Nurses leave mobile phones in their lockers so that if they are asked to accompany a porter whilst he takes a patient to another part of the hospital you converse with the patient once the porter has gone. A hello would have been nice. On the whole the staff were fist class and the clinical care certainly was. A shout out especially to the lady taking around the lunch who was always so lovely and put a sandwich in the fridge for me trying to encourage me to eat. To the porter who could see I wasn't well so went out of his way to talk to me. To the domestic who was cleaning my room and talked to me as she did it. To the care assistants in A&E who took the time to make sure everything was ok and just that extra bit of care.

I was a patient in pre and post operative neurosurgical wards, including icu. I was treated with outstanding care and professionalism, kindness and respect by all the medical staff. Seeing these teams treat others around me also enhanced my appreciation and confidence in their work and in the hospital itself. A student nurse practitioner carefully removed the stitches from my head under the watchful eye of a senior colleague before my discharge and all went very well. They made me feel like we were all a team together. Weeks later the angiogram nurses and doctors made me feel very well cared for, looked after and treated, on a recall visit to check the outcome of my surgery. The support has also been invaluable even after my discharge. Reassurance of ongoing care from the Pharmaceutical team, the neurosurgical support staff and administrators has been wonderful and instrumental in my recovery. The only hospital improvement I would like to see really would be in the ground floor areas, as refreshment choice for visitors especially is very limited indeed.

I had a great stay at Southmead, the rooms were spotless, the staff were lovely and the food was the best I’ve ever had compared to the two previous hospitals I have been admitted to. The only downside was the very long wait in the pharmacy for medication before discharge.