Letter - Royal Shrewsbury Hospital care good, morale low

I would like to thank all the staff employed at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, regardless of their roles, for the excellent care which I received as an inpatient – from the A&E department through to the cardiac care ward.

The care I received from the staff could not have been better. Unfortunately it stopped there.

When Government ministers, MPs and administrators in the health service say the cuts will not be noticed or will improve services to patients, they want to take a look into the real world.

This is what I experienced:

On requesting a second pillow for my bed as the one I had was so thin, I was told there were no more pillows available.

The nurse then folded a blanket into a pillowcase for me.

Following a day on nil by mouth due to medical procedures, I requested a jug of water only to be told that there were no jugs available and received a small glass of water.

The morale of the excellent nursing staff was at a low ebb.

This was due to the fact that half the beds on the cardiac ward were being axed.

This meant that staff were having to bid against working colleagues for the remaining posts.

Where is our National Health Service going?

To the staff, thank you – you are doing a great job – unfortunately you receive the criticism when it should be resting on other shoulders.

Ioan Jones, Shrewsbury