The Wonderful NHS

This date has been in the diary a while – the day I go into Gobowen hospital for a double knee replacement. I’ve heard horror stories of people being refused their operations because they have a scratch on the knee or a slight head cold, and over all the preparation and packing has been the shadow of “it might not happen.”

But it has. The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt hospital operates in favourable conditions – specialising in knee and hip replacements, with a maternity unit but without the pressures of A and E – but they make the most of it. Careful preparation, clear information in advance ( a detailed pre-op visit, an excellent booklet, and a DVD to watch). Everyone I know who’s been there gives it a rave review, and now I’m joining the gang.

Great, hardworking staff, working together, with a passionate concern for patient care – paid reduction, hygiene. Cleaners, tea ladies, physios, nursing staff, anaesthetists, surgeons; everyone seems to understand that we’re all in this together. In the present climate, that’s a miracle.