Share review of Cheltenham General Hospital

Cheltenham General Hospital 2016-05-06 Person 4 5 0

The department seemed to be efficiently run and everything happened smoothly. Patients who were much sicker than me seemed to be treated in a compassionate and gentle manner. The nursing staff were generally very attentive and kind. A (Muslim?) nurse who always wore a head-shawl was particularly considerate and friendly. The food was appetising and well presented, though perhaps not as "healthy" as it could be. One junior doctor who took an "arterial blood gas" sample from another patien exhibited a somewhat blaze bedside manner. He basically siad "this is going to hurt a lot: tough, it has to be done" and when the patient groaned he didn't seem to care. A minute after taking the sample he was joking and laughin with other staff members. I was not asked if I would have liked to see a chaplein and no provision was made for my spriritual needs. I was not kept as well informed as I would have liked regarding my transfer to the Cardiac ward. I was told that the blood test used to determine the severity of my heart-attack had a score of less that 100 (I think 48) and that this indicated that the attack was quite minor. When I saw a consultant on the Cardiac Ward he said that the score was "in the hundreds". I presume that this was from a later test. It would have been good to have been informed of this as soon as it was known as it was a shock to hear it after being told that the attack was quite minor. When the man in the next bed died, there seemed to be more of a "mustn't talk about this and hide it from the other patients" taboo in opperation than any concern for the dignity of the deceased or any recognition that other patients might have wanted to pay their last respects. One nurse was so concerned to draw my curtain so that I shuldn't see what was happening (this ONLY served to make me aware of what was happeing!) that shew spoke quite shaply to me.