Forum Topic

Hammersmith Hospital

I just wanted to post about my good experience with Hammersmith Hospital today.  The staff were marvellous, the unit clean and everything ran to time and plan.  It was a really positive experience, if hospitals can be, of course.  I know that there is a lot to be desired of the NHS but when it works this well, they deserve a mention.  Thanks!

Angela White ● 4983d22 Comments

Hi Angela,I totally agree with you I have always had a good experience when visiting the Hammersmith as opposed to the Charing Cross Hospital which I hate going to.

Tony Crumpton ● 4983d

Ditto Tony.  Charing Cross was never a good experience.

Angela White ● 4983d

Why do hospitals vary, do you think?

Angela White ● 4983d

I've had the opposite, bad experiences (MRSA 3 times) at Hammersmith, perfect treatment for breast cancer at Charing X.. I guess they vary due to management, specialists, buildings and nursing staff, in no particular order.

Chris Hurley ● 4982d

Also bad experiences at Hammi, albeit A&E.  At the moment I'm waiting for an endocrine at CXH, so no problems there.  At least they know how to deal with me.

Nicola Howard ● 4982d

My husband has spent two 2/3 days in intensive care then on a high dependency ward twice in the last eight months and can only speak as I find.Charing x were fantastic and on both occasions the care he received was outstanding.

Tina Halpin ● 4982d

I find Hammersmith very grim, building and atmosphere-wise, but they are excellent clinically. They've saved my husband's life twice in the past twenty years.

Susan Kelly ● 4982d

My Mother had excellent treatment at Hammersmith hospital for many years. Somehow she was sent to Charing Cross where she didn't receive such good care.  She broke her femur when a nurse who was helping her into a wheel chair, was distracted by another patient.  My Mother died within 5 days.

Marilyn Renois ● 4975d

I am so very sorry to hear your sad story, Marilyn.  How awful.  I am not going to make any excuses by saying nurses are over-worked, as I'm sure that might be the case but I'm also sure some aren't up to scratch in care for their patients.  I have to say that Queen Charlotte's were fantastic with their ante-natal care on admission, etc but absolute hell for me with the aftercare once I'd given birth.  A totally different crew of nurses who were frankly rude and mean in many cases (not just to me either, as I witnessed rudeness and lack of empathy all over the place!)  Yes, perhaps overworked, but that's no excuse.

Angela White ● 4975d

Thank you Angela for your kind words.  I was born in Queen Charlottes by Ravenscourt Park & had my son there.  It was war time when I was born & it was the first night of the Doodle Bugs, which were pilotless planes with bombs.  Everything was fine when my son was born apart from it being late June 1976 when we were having a heat wave, 100 deg Fahrenheit & no fans.  Nurses were very good then & doctors.  I'm sorry that things weren't so good for you at the new hospital.  Hope that you & the baby are doing well even if he or she is older now.

Marilyn Renois ● 4974d

I've been visiting Mavis in Hammersmith Hospital. She's in the Sainsbury ward, right at the top. The ward is clean and bright with views and the care seems excellent: a lot of energetic nurses and a high ratio of nurses to patients and health care assistants from what I have seen.Maybe because she is in an acute medical ward but the care is much better than on the other three wards I've seen her on in the last year or two. I think Hammersmith is better than Charing Cross - just from the nursing and hope I'm not biased because it is SO much easier to get to.Of course in the wards full of elderly ladies with dementia, there is a much higher ratio of HCAa and a greater feeling of hopelessness and depression. But good nurse management - sisters and matrons and the like seem to me to be the core of good practice.

Sara Nathan ● 4969d

Please give Mavis my regards and wish her well for me.

Angela White ● 4969d

I think The Sainsbury wing is private health care as my husband was in there so it is bound to be different from the other wards.

Tina Halpin ● 4969d

Yes Tina I think you are correct. Although now I think you can choose where you want to go and the NHS will pay (is that right?)

Chris Hurley ● 4969d

Not too sure if you can choose to go private rather than a normal ward and all funded by the NHS.

Tina Halpin ● 4969d

Mavis was certainly NOT in private wing but in a perfectly ordinary NHS ward - though an unusually caring and well-run one I thought.

Sara Nathan ● 4968d

When I was in Hammersmith in 2004 the Sainsbury wing was private.

Chris Hurley ● 4968d

Can you imagine Mavis having any truck with private medicine?

Sara Nathan ● 4968d

'The Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Wing is a dedicated private facility within Hammersmith Hospital, offering 26 en suite rooms for inpatient and day care, of which eight inpatient beds are centrally monitored. They are all designed to provide comfort and privacy.'Can't find anything on Google that suggests otherwise, but it may be that the NHS has bought a bed there for Mavis, whoever she is.

Susan Kelly ● 4968d

It is definitely a private wing as I've stayed there in years gone by but I'm sure it's also used as an overflow area for NHS patients when they haven't got room.  Most of the rooms when I was there were empty.

Angela White ● 4968d

I'm sure it wasn't her choice! But I hope she is enjoying it.

Chris Hurley ● 4968d

Apparently the Sainsbury wing is private but the Sainsbury building - in which the wing is I think situated, is not.So Ward A8 very much not.

Sara Nathan ● 4964d