MAYBE now help will be received to set the County Hospital on track and most importantly protect the patients. Unfortunately none of these measures can put right the errors that were made when the hospital was built in the wrong place with too few beds.
This was known and reported widely at the time. There was never any forward thinking. The pressure on A&E due to the retirement of several GPs are plannable events with somebody responsible for this data. Alternative arrangements for these patients should have been made well in advance.
There are good staff at the hospital but my own family’s experiences this summer have not been great.
There was a cancelled outpatient appointment, an operation cancelled after four hours of waiting in a holding area for surgery, and appalling post-operative and discharge care.
But the most worrying was questionable medicine-dispensing practices. Attempts to speak to patient liaison were met by staff, who are overwhelmed by the task they face on a daily basis, having to justify the unjustifiable.
Let us hope that the future for the hospital is a better one.
SUSAN HERRINGTON Golding Way, Ledbury
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