The London Clinic 2022-12-02 Person 4 5 0

I have twice been an "inpatient" for an operation in August 2022 and in October 2022. I have also attended for outpatient consultations. The hospital is well managed and the staff are professional and attentive. Staff shortages are sometimes apparent, but I am mindful that compared to the English NHS hispitals the London Clinic is well staffed. I am also appreciative that by the standards of English NHS hospitals the London Clinic is very well cleaned. This is important in a hospital. And of course I remember falling in love with at least eight of your nurses, but I suspect one is no longer encouraged to share such sentiments: and clearly my mood was exceptionally elevated on account of still being alive post-operatively. Food is more important to me than it should be. Fortunate, at least from a health perspective, are they - like my wife and some of my children - who are not obsessed with the whole business of eating and cooking not always in that order. As a long standing diabetic - albeit 90% in remission since losing 35 kg - I was surprised by how few of the menu options excluded significant levels of refined sugar, and by how many carbs - potatoes and bready sandwiches - were present on the menu, especially the snack menu. For a light breakfast I was restricted to croissants. Not even a plain bread roll on the list. How about Bretzel or bread rolls sprinlked with seeds for a change? For main meals I mostly ordered, from memory, sea bass fillet with ratatouille. Very nice. (Michael Mosely seems to think that at my age one should try and keep down all the carbs, especially when it comes to the evening meal.) If I had stayed in for longer I might have become a bit bored with the same combination every evening, tasty though it is. After each of my operations there was a concern that my blood sugar might rise to an unusual extent and it did briefly get up to around 10.0. So each day, a couple of hours following each operation, I took a single Metgormin 500 mg tablet. (I normally take a Metformin tablet only if my pre-breakfast blood sugar level is >5.0.) 18 hours later, each day, following this one-tablet treatment, my pre-breakfast blood sugar had travelled too far in the opposite direction. 3.6 and 3.7. The first time a second croissant at breakfast did the trick. The second time my blood sugar was checked before the croissants had arrived and I was offered a couple of sugary biscuits accompanied by a swig of orange juice, both of which I refused. Being, by this time, familiar with your menu options, I had arrived with a long-life packet of German Roggenbrot, which as long as you don't unwrap it has a three month shalf life and which, they tell me, converts the carbs to sugar with much less urgently than sugary biscuits from a biscuit factory.. I appreciate that Roggenbrot is foreign. Nevertheless, looking at your patients, it is apparent that you have a lot of diabetics and pre-diabetics - whether or not diagnosed - among your customers. I order mine from PEMA in lower Bavaria twice a year and store most of them in the freezer, which I appreciate sounds pretentious. But as long as you are content with a single type, I imagine you can still get it at Sainsburys. Probably also Waitrose and Lidl. (There is also a brand in England called Biona, but I have experience-driven issues with that one which have led me to avoid it.) Incidently, a slice (or two) of Roggenbrot spread with low-fat Quark and maybe tarted up with a little olive tapenade, and then covered with smoked salmon and sprinkled with say five to ten pommegranite berries makes a great dabetic breakfast. A large spoonful of Kimchi at the side even counts as one of your five-a-day. Presubably. And if your smoked salmon is too expensive every day and roll-mop herrings ditto, a couple of sardines out of a tin also work. Sorry I seem to be getting preachy.