what whould you choose ?????

think staff , builings , and distance.

Not to for get the best cuppa tea maker on huntsman 4 and burns.. lol

Accident and Emergency and other important hospital services should be at the Hallamshire, as it is centrally located.

Northern General is fine for those that live on that side of town, but what about those of us on the South side of the city.

From Bradway to the Northern General involves a long cross-city journey, which in a car takes a minimum half hour drive, that is without any traffic. By bus it involves 2 buses and a hour long journey.

The closest A&E to where I live now is Chesterfield Royal hospital at Calow, which is where I go rather than the Northern General. That hospital is about 15-20 minutes in the car straight down the Dronfield bypass, and also has a direct bus link.

However it seems to be frowned upon because it is in Derbyshire rather than South Yorkshire!

I prefer the Hallamshire. The Northen is to spread out, many different buildings and difficult to find your way around.

I hope you all prefer RHH, asI work NGH so less work for me.
Pity there is no choice for all of us.

I disagree, Andy, about the A & E department(s).

there should be an A&E at EACH of the two sheffield adult hospitals, IMO, in a city the size of Sheffield.

the waits are horrendous at the NGH's A&E, because the resources are overstretched, I have spent from 10pm, to just before 8am one night, there, for a broken foot. and that was an eight hour wait,to be seen at 6am, from arriving at 10pm, and being triaged about 10 mins later.

That wait, all that time, was taken up by waiting for a doctor to see me, in order to sign a form to have my foot X-rayed, to confirm that it was fractured. I was x-rayed by 6.30 am, and called back into the cubicle at 7.10 am, to be treated by the nurse, and "released" at 7.45 am, with a fractured bone in my foot, which i had told the nurse triaging me, originally, that this was what had happened.

A more sensible method would be for something as straightforward as this, surely, would be for the triage nurse to bypass the doc, and have the nurse, there, with the authority to get the xrays done him or herself..? like at the minor injuries unit..?

PT

I live a few minutes walk from the Hallamshire. Last year, I had to go to A&E so had to make my own way across town to the Northern General. After waiting a few hours, I got transferred by ambulance back to the Hallamshire... which meant having to leave my car at the Northern General for a few days. It seems to me that it would make more sense to have the A&E at the more central hospital... or even go back to having A&E at BOTH hospitals!

nice pubs near hallamshire, not so good near ng. once went to a/e at hallamshire and there was blood everywhere in waiting room, took reception about it "yes im aware" - two hours later, its still there GROSS. good job there were only a few kids in with their parents and it was nighttime so they were sleepy and not running about, touching it.
saying that northern sorted me when i got meningitus, shot me straight to hallam, good docs and nurses xx

Definately Hallamshire.. Them nurses that looked after me...

Phwoooooooooooooooooar :heyhey:

Originally posted by Deejay
Definately Hallamshire.. Them nurses that looked after me...

Phwoooooooooooooooooar :heyhey:

But the nurses at the Northern General were nice too. I must remember to buy a nurse uniform for my fiancee for Christmas! :heyhey:

tried em both.no complaints at all,hallamshire treat you like its a hotel with good meal menues as does the northern,western park is very friendly,couldnt really choose between them exept hallamshire is nearer to me so its easier to get to,only complaint is nothing to do with staff...its the blooxy parking,its terrible,times ive had appointments only to return home and ask for a later one as i couldnt get parked up

I used to work at the Hallamshire so am biased, but luckily never had to be admitted to either yet (touch wood).

I'll break a leg and report back ;)

Always found Northern General to be best by far. Friendly and helpful people (nurses, doctors, other staff), parking a doddle.

Hallamshire? I was at a conference couple of years back really close to the Hallamshire when I was taken ill. Someone from hotel drove me to Hallamshire, got me in a wheelchair and took me to minor injuries place where they left me. Nurse there shouted at me saying "why have you come here? we don't have any doctors here" and then told me to phone some family to take me to Northern General. Told her i'm not from Sheffield and have no family here and said i'd get a cab, but didn't have enough money for a cab. She said the cab drivers probably wouldn't take me anyway coz they don't like taking people who are obviously ill! She pushed me (in the wheelchair) to the entrance doors and left me there.

Managed to get hold of my hubby a few hours later who got a cab to the hotel to pick up the car and then came to pick me up.

Originally posted by Hels
Always found Northern General to be best by far. Friendly and helpful people (nurses, doctors, other staff), parking a doddle.

Hallamshire? I was at a conference couple of years back really close to the Hallamshire when I was taken ill. Someone from hotel drove me to Hallamshire, got me in a wheelchair and took me to minor injuries place where they left me. Nurse there shouted at me saying "why have you come here? we don't have any doctors here" and then told me to phone some family to take me to Northern General. Told her i'm not from Sheffield and have no family here and said i'd get a cab, but didn't have enough money for a cab. She said the cab drivers probably wouldn't take me anyway coz they don't like taking people who are obviously ill! She pushed me (in the wheelchair) to the entrance doors and left me there.

Managed to get hold of my hubby a few hours later who got a cab to the hotel to pick up the car and then came to pick me up. hope you complained,people like her give nhs a bad name and should be sacked

Should have complained but didn't. But learnt from that - I always have enough cash on me for a cab whenever I leave home!

+++++++++++++++++++++

Originally posted by Hels
Always found Northern General to be best by far. Friendly and helpful people (nurses, doctors, other staff), parking a doddle.

Hallamshire? I was at a conference couple of years back really close to the Hallamshire when I was taken ill. Someone from hotel drove me to Hallamshire, got me in a wheelchair and took me to minor injuries place where they left me. Nurse there shouted at me saying "why have you come here? we don't have any doctors here" and then told me to phone some family to take me to Northern General. Told her i'm not from Sheffield and have no family here and said i'd get a cab, but didn't have enough money for a cab. She said the cab drivers probably wouldn't take me anyway coz they don't like taking people who are obviously ill! She pushed me (in the wheelchair) to the entrance doors and left me there.

Managed to get hold of my hubby a few hours later who got a cab to the hotel to pick up the car and then came to pick me up.

I can not belive that how rude come to northen we are better staff there

i've not had any problem with either hospital, they have both treated me very well when i have been, altho the same things as other people, parking at both hospitals is disgrasefull, even for staff. my sister is a nurse at the NGH & altho she has a parking pass she cant always get parked in the staff carpark & has to pay, she dosent get that money re-embursed & to park her car for 9 hours in the carpark is a fourtune. and the waiting hours are awful but thats the same alover the country in NHS hopitals so i aint gona slate our hospitals for something thats a problem all over the country.

now its barnsley hospital i have the problem with, ugh it was disgusting! because i live in high green, which is neer enough the same distance to barnsley as it is to sheffield, if you need an ambulance it could come from either town or city.

my brother-in-law broke his back on his 30th birthday & i was with him whe he did it. the ambulance came from barnsley & took him to barnsley hospital. the place was dirty, all round the edges of the room he was put in was dirty. the nurse's that we saw were obnoxious & rude. from what i saw they were unhyginic. when my b-i-l was put on a ward i saw twio nurses not change there gloves from one patient to the next, after she had inserted a drip.

then when it comes to orginisation, they had mixed up the medical report boards that hang at the bottom of the bed & they were ment to arrange transport that evening for my b-i-l to the back specialist dept at NGH. twice they messed that up. first they forgot, & the secondtime the ambulance took him to rotherham general, when he arrived there the ambulance had another pick up & the staff at rotherham couldnt do anything with him so left him laying on a bed in a coridor for 5 hours, it was rediculas.

tho once at NGH the staff there on the back dept were absolutley fantastic.

had to go in to DRI too, in my oppinion that is one of the best hospitals in south yorkshire, the staff were very friendly & did everything they could to make you comfortuble.

i think british hospitals should take a leaf out of cryprus' hospitals. when i went there for my first holiday without my parents, the first day i was there i split my head open. they couldnt put me in one of the private hospitals so put me in one of there general hospitals. the leval of friendlyness, & clenliness was 100%, the food was absolutley fantastic too! if i had the money i'd go live over there & work in there hospitals!

Originally posted by Plain Talker
I disagree, Andy, about the A & E department(s).

there should be an A&E at EACH of the two sheffield adult hospitals, IMO, in a city the size of Sheffield.

the waits are horrendous at the NGH's A&E, because the resources are overstretched

PT

Ideally both yes...

Originally posted by Lickszz
I prefer the Hallamshire. The Northen is to spread out, many different buildings and difficult to find your way around.

I've never had any complaints about the Hallamshire.

Never been to Northern General in my life. Once A&E closed at Hallamshire I've used Chesterfield as it's closer. And the only time I've had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance since I was in Derby, so got taken to the Derby Royal Infirmary! (which I was fairly happy with).

I used to work in the garage behind Northern General and thought the staff were great I had both my legs operated on in there a good few years ago and had no problems, and we used the A&E department a few times with work injuries but I do think it is a good idea to have an A&E dept at both hospitals

seen as though i work in the northern im going to have to say northern! I never have any trouble finding places as i know it like the back of my hand now!! Nice place to work in my opinion! Never been in hospital though touch wood!

I'm going a bit off topic here (a lot off topic) but I was pleased to find out that the Huntsman building at the Northern General Hospital was named after Benjamin Huntsman (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?postid=91312#post91312), the inventor of Crucible steel.

There are pictures and displays on the ground floor of Huntsman, his life and his work, so take a look...if you're ever in there with a broken leg or something.

I prefer the Northern General over the Hallamshire, simply because I was born there :clap:

i agree its better to have two a&e dept in sheffield.ive broken my arm and my ankle this yr.the walk even from the short stay at the northern felt sooo long.couldnt walk far so was murder.the staff you cant fault them at all.it took us a while to get there because im from the south of sheffield. Hallamshire would have been just as near.when i broke the same arm a few yrs ago i went to the Hallamshire and was in and out alot faster.
my problem is that im just accident prone so better keep fingers crossed that i dont see iether for a while now

If you live in Sheffield or surrouding area be grateful for any Sheffield hosptial you can get in. My husband had a brain haemmorhage on Sunday 12th September and there were no beds available for him here. He had to be transferred to Leeds for immediate surgery and we have only got him transferred back to Sheffield on 30th October. 48 days travelling to Leeds was not a good experience. Now making slow recovery in NGH.

I think if the minor injuries/nhs walk in unit were open longer hours and people knew about it then it'd work better. Come to my rescue a couple of times and much quicker than waiting at A+E. Also when I ruptured my Achilles, and they wanted it checked they phoned ahead to A+E at the NGH and I got seen a lot faster (ok still abt 1.5 hrs wait) by the consultant there. Funny thing was they'd just started a new rotation so the on duty orthopod was escorted by consultant. They had me down to get my full leg x-rayed the radiologist had a fit, asked me if any other part hurt and then ignored them and just did my ankle as it was a total waste of time, and they shouldn't let these doctors out if they were still in nappies!

At Hallamshire they take ambulence emergencies only.

Parking at NGH needs sorting though - total nightmare! I was lucky and found one car park that usually would have a space).

Not much better at Hallamshire either.

To all of you.
Be grateful either of us has access to any hospital within a 15 / 20 minute drive. what do you want next an la-carte menu, we already get waitress sevrice when we are admitted. :suspect:

Abdul,
Who do you think Firth,and Vickers are named after ?
They are all about the same period as NGH is at the moment.

rotherham hospital is great they have fanastic staff, the building is large and has burger king,bakery, boots and even jobcenter where you can look for jobs. i live in tinsley so im in between sheffield and rotherham so i would choose rotherham hospital.

Originally posted by matsalleh
Abdul,
Who do you think Firth,and Vickers are named after ?
They are all about the same period as NGH is at the moment.

Ach! How could I have missed that :blush:

After the Northern General left my mother in so much pain for 6 weeks and when we took her to the Hallamshire, they spotted the mistake the Northern General made in hours.

The Northern General is just awful, I don't have a good thing to say about it.

The Hallamshire is a lot better.

And yes, both should have A&E departments.

My bf was taken to NGH after he was attacked....he had no money on him (well you wouldn't think of picking up your wallet as you lay in a pool of blood in your own home now would you!!!). He had used his mobile phone to call for an ambulance but the crew put his mobile on the table and it got left behind....

They discharged him after patching him up - at 4am in the morning - and told him he would have to make his own way home!!!!!! NGH made NO provision to get him home and would not let him use a phone to phone me. He ended up calling me reverse charge and I had to phone about trying to find a taxi firm open and working at that time in the morning.

He arrived home and I paid the taxi....he went to bed.

A couple of hours later there was a knock at the door....police officers....they had come to take him back into hospital because the person who deemed he was fit to come home missed that he had 4 broken ribs and a collapsed lung :loopy:

He spent a further week in hospital :|

Unfortunately I have had bad experiences in both hospitals some of the staff can be really nasty.

When my dad was really ill in the geriatrics ward in the Hallamshire the nurses just sat about talking, they sat and watched an old man stagger around and fall visiters to the ward had to rush to his aid the staff couldnt have cared less, there were tablets scattered on the floor that any child could have taken when told about these tablets the nurse just shrugged and walked off, one off the nurses told my mum that my dad was nothing but trouble and they would be glad to see the back of him (bearing in mind my dad was seriously ill and died a few weeks later). No one helped any of the patients to eat and most just starved unless relatives helped them it was a disgrace. This is a few years ago so I hope its improved since.

NGH when I had my appendix out you never saw a nurse and god forbid you rang your buzzer, you got short shrift, there was blood spattered all over the toilet for about three days it was disgusting. I hope I never have to go in either to be honest.

I have been treated in both and happy with both. the NGH A&E staff saved my life!

It would be ideal to have A&E facilities at both (Its been done in the past), but as long as tight budgets and high demand on beds prevails, its not going to happen.
the Hallamshires EAU dept is also taking GP admissions. they simply do not have the capacity to deal with the random complaints walking through the door (They DO accept the VERY ill ambulance patients, but only VERY ill, as in immediatly life-threatening, not your bellyaches etc)
As for travelling: well i think we are pretty blessed that the A&E is just across town. there are parts of the UK where the nearest A&E dept is well over an hours drive away, or a ferry/airlift is required to get you there.

I can not belive that how rude come to northen we are better staff there

Hee hee hee! I'll second that! Hallamshire are welcome to A&E though! Less work for me! :hihi:

Ideally both yes...


and your rationale for the an A+E at the hospital without any trauma facilities ( other than the teritary neurosurgical centre ) ?

given the RHH has a Minor injuries unit, NHS walk in centre and the OOh primary care centre, and has a Acute Assessment Unit ?? the AAU/CCU at the hallmshirealso used ot take Heart attack patients directly from the crews ( i don't know if Sheffield has gone for Primary PCI yet )

Nottingham doesn't have 2 A+Es, neither does Leicester, the A+E department at St James in Leeds is now little more than a minor injuries unit although it still takes a wide variety of medical patients - leeds has also had a simialr service reconfiguration to Sheffield had quite a few years ago with services concentrating on one site to provide expert service with good senior cover rather than spread out cover with poor senior cover...

Ive been in the NG & RH, im happy with both, all the staff were brill, the Nurses are the unsung heroes of the NHS!! Lv'em!!


i live near the NGH, but with a city the size of sheffield we DO NEED Both main hospitals to av a A+E department!!

the AAU/CCU at the hallmshirealso used ot take Heart attack patients directly from the crews ( i don't know if Sheffield has gone for Primary PCI yet )

ST elevation MI's (certain type of heart attack) and cardiac arrest patients can still be ashiced directly into CCU at the Hallamshire by ambulance crews if RHH is closer than NGH.

When the strategic health authority decided to centralise trauma services research was carried out looking at the effect this had on waiting times etc.

Results showed:

"There has been a small decrease in the number of new patient attendances using the Sheffield A&E system. Most patients go to the correct department. The numbers of acute admissions through the adult A&E have doubled. Measures of process efficiency show some improvement in times to admission. There has been measurable deterioration in the time to be seen for minor injuries in the A&E departments. This is partly offset by the very good waiting time to be seen in the minor injuries unit."

The Sheffield experiment: the effects of centralising accident and emergency services in a large urban setting
Emerg. Med. J., May 2001; 18: 193 - 197.

Personally i've not had the misfortune to be admitted to either but my friends a trainee nurse and they have placements all over the place. She's had good and bad experiences at both hospitals. I think the quality of the hospital treatment is down to the quality and commitment of the staff. I work at rotherham hospital and some of the wards are fab and others- well i think i'd sooner not bother and suffer instead!! I do think there should be an A/E at both sites though. Sheffield is a sprawling city and to be honest NGH is pretty dodgy to get to for a lot of people and look what happened during the floods- all the roads to it were inaccessible!! Its maybe not such an issue with a sinlge site A/E in sheffield whilst the district hospitals still have emergency facilities. However, there have been various gov proposals about closing smaller hospital A/E's and having one large centralised "super" centre. I could probably get to Chesterfield/rotherham/bassetlaw hospitals quicker than i could the NGH and i live in Sheff.

At Hallamshire they take ambulence emergencies only.

Just to clarify - you will only be taken to the Hallamshire by ambulance if:
a) you are in cardiac arrest
b) you are having a heart attack confirmed by ECG
c) it has been arranged (subject to available bed space) by your GP, not as a result of a 999 call.

So don't phone 999 just because you want to be treated at the Hallamshire!

If you live in Sheffield or surrouding area be grateful for any Sheffield hosptial you can get in. My husband had a brain haemmorhage on Sunday 12th September and there were no beds available for him here. He had to be transferred to Leeds for immediate surgery and we have only got him transferred back to Sheffield on 30th October. 48 days travelling to Leeds was not a good experience. Now making slow recovery in NGH.

becasue neurosurgery is a tertiary only service to provide the critical mass of patients needed ot sustain the extensive facilities it requires, the residents of South Yporkshire are extremely fortunate in that not only do they have easy access to the services provided by STH, but are realistically not that far from Leeds, Nottigham and Manchester based services ...

thanks to dan and scrappy for their replies for people who work in the system in SY -( assuming scrappy is the scrappy i think she is ... )

scrappy, quoting old ScHaRR or Med School research is neither big nor hard ! i wouldn't be suprised if some ofthe data in the cited study isn't nearly 10 years old...

I prefer the RHH, cos it's easier to get to, there's a bus less than 5 minutes away from here, the number 10 from the back of Tesco, which drops you almost literally on its doorstep.

For me to get up to the Northern General from here it'd be at least 2 buses each way there and back.

scrappy, quoting old ScHaRR or Med School research is neither big nor hard !

Did I ever make out that it was?

However quoting research and providing a reference is a way of allowing people to critically analyse the data themselves and draw their own conclusions about whether the changes in Sheffield were a good thing or not.

And of course the data is old. It was published in 2001. But it is still very relevent when discussing whether the change was beneficial or not.

I made no comment as to what I think about the situation I mearly provided information for others to do what they wish with. Stop trying to cause arguements.

[QUOTE=Andy C;206178]Accident and Emergency and other important hospital services should be at the Hallamshire, as it is centrally located.

Accident and emergency is at the Northern Genearl because they are a Trauma hospital. So if someone were to be in a accident and needed orthopaedic surgery they dont need to be transfered across site. The NOrthern also specialises in burns and plastic and reconstructive surgery. So again if you were to severe a finger/hand etc it can be operated on there.
The only down side to A&E being at the Northern is that Neurological surgery is at the RHH so, if you break a bone and get a head injury, the bone will be operated on at the Northern and then you wouldhave to be transfered to get the head injury sorted out.

I've spent time in both hospitals and found on a whole the standard of care was great in both. The big differentiator in my case was with the HDU - my care in the NG was beyond excellent but when I was transferred to the RHH it was rather dire.