Excellent service

At a time when the public is ready and willing to let organisations know what they do not like, it is a real pleasure to offer our thanks and congratulations for the excellent service we received from the NHS Direct phone line, the responder, the paramedics, and the staff in Accident and Emergency and the medical assessment unit at Dewsbury and District Hospital when I had what turned out to be a mini stroke.

The initial response (within five minutes of NHS Direct putting us onto the 999 service) was from Steve, and then five minutes later from the paramedics Brian and Jim. The care was fast, professional and very supportive. My wife said she barely had time to get dressed before Steve arrived, and when she got to hospital she realised she was still wearing slippers!

The care and support we had in A&E, in particular from Kate, and later from Faz, was excellent. Once in the medical assessment unit we were treated with kindness and respect from staff at every level, right through to my release just 36 hours later. Although not an experience I would choose to repeat, we both have a great deal of confidence in the A&E service at Dewsbury and District Hospital and offer our thanks to all the staff involved in our incident. They almost succeeded in making it a pleasure once our panic was over, and we knew I was in safe hands.

GEOFF HORSMAN

Heathfield

MIRFIELD