This hospital is accessible by public transport, but it is not convenient from bus or train…read morestation. Modern with excellent medical facilities including CT, etc. The booking-in process was stressful but straightforward for German/Danish speakers.
The staff are mostly friendly and efficient from intensive care to normal wards. Doctors held daily ward rounds and run a team system, with one senior doctor in charge and one junior doctor on constant call at all times. An anaesthetist was available, who emphasised we should be as pain-free as possible at all times.
Throughout the in-house tests and reparation for surgery a doctor talked me through the whole process and answered any questions in full. He/she was on "my team" as they put it, so although there were several, I was able to build a relationship at a personal level and felt I was not just another lump of flesh in the system.
There's a public café, chapel and lending library with a weekly book-to-bed service. Wifi is accessible (daily, 3, 15 or 30 day contracts) and patients can rent a phone (calls + daily rate). Mobile phones are not allowed.
Food was excellent for the main part, although the only hot meal of the day was at lunchtime. Bread, cheese, cold cuts, jams, etc. only served mornings and evenings and fresh fruit was not offered daily. A dietician personally took patients' orders daily. An empathetic physiotherapist gave patients daily sessions and was very helpful and knowledgeable. A resident pastor was also available.
Accommodation is in two (private) or four (public) bed rooms which were extremely cramped and short of space. Each patient had a bedside locker and a wardrobe locker too close to a bed to use easily and there were no bedside chairs. Privacy was non-existent so all procedures, commode use and bedside ablutions were in full view of fellow patients, staff and even visitors. A curtain could be drawn across the wash basin area, but it was quite inadequate. Visitors had to sit on the bed or take the patient out. Two tables and five chairs stood at the end of the corridor and a "sitting area" outside the ward office, where there were more tables and chairs but absolutely no privacy. Like a drafty and uncomfortable station waiting room, where two distressed elderly patients suffering from dementia were parked for hours on end each day...
Personal experience over 10 days was mixed. Two nurses were abrasive and rough, especially one I called the ex Russian shot-putter and her side kick! The surgical ward was frankly under-staffed. Both nursing and cleaning staff were overworked. The single cleaner had the whole ward inc. 2 hygiene areas and two toilets per room, ward bathrooms/showers/sluices, kitchen, nurses room, office space, corridors, dining and sitting areas, lockers etc. for approximately 50 patients to keep clean in only three hours per day. A foul smell coming from the two washbasins in our four-bed room was reported several times before a technician finally came to check.
Calls for help were left unanswered for long periods, especially at night. The bells, tv/radio headphones and phones were not all functional, so some patients had to call for help on behalf of others. One night a fellow-patient fell out of bed and a call went unanswered for well over half an hour. I picked her up and onto her bed. Thankfully she weighed no more than 48 kg and I managed without rupturing my own stitches. I was leaking seriously myself one day, but was left several hours in blood and wound water soaked clothing and bed before any staff had time to sort me out. My visiting friends were outraged.
The day I was discharged, there was no hot or cold running water anywhere in the hospital and yet the next patient was brought to my bed before 8 a.m, yet at that point I had not been told I was going home! After breakfast and packing my case, I pushed my bed down to the disinfection area on the ground floor, as this was the only way to transport my luggage to the taxi waiting at the front door. I could obviously not carry anything heavy following serious surgery, but there was no system in place for helping someone without family or friends. Yes, "stuff happens", but I felt I had been thrown out of a safe environment and the duty of care was lacking.
Hospitals are great to have and do all they can to make patients better, but going to one abroad is a culture shock as much as anything else. I can recommend this hospital highly because at the end of the day, it was the surgeon's skills which saved my life and I was never in any physical danger, despite some unpleasantness and cavalier nursing staff! The majority were kind and accommodating as long as you did as they told you. I suspect it is the same everywhere.