"Kind actions will forever remain with my family"

My father was admitted to Ward 71 at The Western General Hospital, Edinburgh.  Within 24 hours of admission via The Acute Receiving Unit, I took a call from a Senior Consultant to say dad had experienced two strokes.  I felt that this was a really brave call to make to me as dad had experienced a difficult period beforehand to get to this diagnosis. 

From this point the entire family could now come to terms with the above accurate news.

In the preceding weeks his condition had been monitored and evaluated. We were constantly updated as to his condition, and had a sit down meeting with all the disciplines,  where we were updated on his health, culminating in a plan that would address his future care and needs. We continue to be guided about his future.

From day one we all felt that we were in a place of safety not only for my father but the entire family.

We felt we were all being cared for, in one way or another, and that the caring hands of the staff reached out to us all.

Ward 71 is positive, friendly, caring, and utterly professional - empathy is one word I must reinforce.

We live in a society that is under severe pressure to perform in a financially "efficient " manner, and so much heartache must go on behind the scenes that the public simply are not aware of.

Each and everyone of the staff in Ward 71 have given us such care and understanding, something that never can be recorded on any spreadsheet, they have given us a little bit of themselves - One will never be able to capture the acts of humanity felt on these spreadsheets, or, on any data base but, these kind actions will forever remain with my family.