LETTER: Junior doctors do fantastic job

Many Crawley residents, this year, have come down with the flu or similar nasty related illnesses this winter and have added an extra strain to our already creaking NHS services.

I have been just one of the many that have had to call 111 and use the local “out of hours” services in the last few weeks.I have spent over £30 on taxis visiting the “out-of-hours” GP at Crawley hospital and have also joined the six hour queue at Crawley Urgent Treatment Centre in the middle of the night. I have spent Sundays going from one pharmacist to another to find one that had the medication I needed in stock.

Finally, on the third time that I had to ring 111, I talked to a GP that realised how ill I really was and he called me an ambulance that took me straight up to East Surrey hospital. I arrived there at 5 o’clock in the morning on the day of the junior doctors strike!

I expected another long wait to be seen, but I was wrong. I was seen straight away although the doctors that were working in East Surrey A & E on that day were under a lot of pressure.

Every single member of staff were brilliant from the paramedics that took me there, the consultant, the nurses, the technician in X Ray, the lovely porter, the man that made me lots of cups of tea, the young “smiley” trainee doctors with their stethoscopes that eagerly queued up next to my trolley to practice their new skills on me, the cheerful staff in Patient Transport and the kind volunteer that drove me home later that day.

Although our local “out-of-hours” services cannot deliver all we would wish they could, especially for patients that have no transport, I’m sure it can be improved upon. However, East Surrey hospital passed the “patient care test” 100 per cent plus.

I hope that Jeremy Hunt will be able to get his seven day a week NHS soon and that he will help our hard-working, dedicated young doctors. These junior doctors are the future of our NHS and deserve to be listened to. They do a fantastic job under a lot of pressure and, as a grateful patient, I will support them every step of the way.

Vanessa Kirby

Bewbush

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