Interview 23

Age at interview: 54

Brief Outline:

Was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2004. Complications led to a 17- day stay in intensive care and 2 weeks on general ward.

Background:

Occupation: maintenance. Marital status: married. Number of children: 2. Ethnic background: White British.

He praised the hard work and care of the ICU nurses as well as the food and cleanliness.

They don't deserve the bad publicity, the NHS. I've said you can't knock it for what they've done, for what they try to do. I think the people that, you know, sort of knock them ought to sit back and, you know, see how hard they work. Because when you're laid in bed you can actually see what the staff have to do and cope with. But they must be dedicated to what they do, to want to do it. I mean there's a lot of people who would, could say to a patient, "Sod you" and that's it. No, there was, I mean you couldn't fault that at all, could you? The food was actually, you know, everyone used to knock hospital food, but it was really good nourishing stuff. It wasn't, you know, boiled cabbage and mashed potato, you know, good menus. 

Clean, in fact I think they went into overkill with cleaning. Two or three times a day they was either hovering, mopping or wiping something. The Intensive Care was what it said. It was intensive care, it was one-to-one and you couldn't fault them. They were, what I saw of them, I mean obviously the first fortnight I was out of it, so they were just again figments in my imagination. But when they come out, you know, I've seen them again, seen them out, they're always friendly and that.