AndyBlog: A little balance...

I am painfully aware - well, painfully everything - that I spoken, thus far, from an almost completely critical standpoint.

So let's stand back a touch and put things into context. What feels to me like a desparate state of affairs, may actually represent only a small actual error on the hospital's part.

Much of the problem is the slow nature of the way in which hospitals move. In their terms, they respond immediately, in my terms, it is no-where near fast enough.

Let's look at the state of play today, and see where we are up to. Here are the five main points on the positive end of things:

1) I am on 4 litres per day of antibiotic IV drip.

2) The cellulitis may already be responding. It has certainly failed in its bid to crawl further up my leg.

3) My bandage has been changed at least once every day on the worst (left) leg.

4) Spider-man (alias 'John') has been moved to another part of this ward. This should mean we get a quieter night. A lot depends on Geordie, and whether or not he fancies any late night 'action'.

5) I now have regular pain relief that I don't have to fight for. Whilst it is not as flexible as I have at home, it is now workable. This, alone, has cheered me no end.

All that positivity has left me slightly giddy. Now for the negative points:

1) I am in a geriatrics ward. They have no specialised equipment or skills to help me with my condition.

2) They have not managed to source the proper bandaging materials. I am assured that they are ordered, but their arrival may still be days away.

3) Because of the kind of patients on this ward, sleeping well at night is near impossible. It's noisy, very hot and the others are liable to act unpredicatbly.

4) There is a perfectly good dermitology department which could treat me far better than here, yet who refuse to help.

So, you see, if we remove that 72-hour time lag from admission when things were very very wrong, the picture looks a lot more rosy.

Many of you will have heard me tell similar stories based on my stay in Dryburn hospital. This place is clearly better.

1) Here, I have been seen by a doctor every day except Sunday. At Dryburn, five days elapsed between me seeing a doctor.

2) There was something very depressing about Dryburn, this place is a lot friendlier. The staff are, for the most part, great.

3) The food is much better here.

4) My consultant is not smug and arrogant. He's an approachable guy who does listen. At Dryburn.... well, not that.

5) I have not received pointless lectures about weight loss or diabetes here.

I reckon that's enough comparisons. My point is to show you that now that I am a little more stable, I can stand back and view things in a more even-handed way.

If they were able to put me on a more appropriate ward and get the required bandages, this place would now be performing well. What it lacks, is the ability to get stuff right from the outset.

Here, it seems, the patients must fight for what they get - and fight hard.