‘Angels’ of mercy: In praise of NHS nurses

I WENT into Guy’s Hospital in London last week (for a relatively minor operation), thinking I would be discharged after an overnight stay.

In the event, I had to stay five days, with quite a bit of pain and some complications.

Leaving aside all the politics of running the health service, all I can say is my gratitude to the nurses who looked after me cannot be expressed in words.

They were hard-pressed and tending to patients who were very much more ill than I was, but always kind and gentle in dealing with me.

In heaps of ‘thank you’ cards sent in by previous patients, I noticed the word “angel” crop up repeatedly. I don’t think I can improve on that.

The food was surprisingly good. I got used to the regime – breakfast at 7am, lunch at noon, tea and biscuits at 3pm and supper at 6pm.

In the early hours, I was in a bad way on two occasions. A couple of young Asian women doctors got me out of trouble. One had her bleeper buzzing as she was summoned to even more urgent cases. “Don’t worry, I will deal with you first.”

A high proportion of the nurses were black. They look after patients at their most vulnerable and do things that most people wouldn’t want to do.

Anyone who is cared for in their time of need, as I was, will always want to champion the nurses’ cause.

I was quite tolerant about one patient in our ward, who kept screaming with pain and fear through until dawn.

I thought of poet Dylan Thomas and lines from one of his famous works: “Do not go gentle into that good night;/ Old age should burn and rave at close of day;/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”