St James University Hospital

After my recent stay in hospital. I just want to say how amazing your staff are, from the cleaners all the way up the to the doctors. You did everything you could to help our situation and I just want to thankyou for that.
So anyone who’s worried about going to hospital don’t you’re in good hands I promise x

Although the nurses on some wards such as j46 are fantastic as I have even here a lot recently as a patient the nurses on the ward are great to help and are very sympathetic towards patients. This sadly is not the case on every ward as I came in again last week I found myself in the surgical assessment ward in a room on my own for 8 hours where the nurses were awful their attitude was appalling and the way they spoke to me was disgusting when I asked when I was going to be moved to a ward one said angrily that maybe I should just go discharge myself and make they’re job easier and to stop crying because I couldn’t be in that much pain and was disturbing other patients! when I have abdomen problems and was in agony. and they were refusing to give me pain killers for a long period of time even after thy had been perscribed. This shocked me and made me feel disgusted with their service.
However it is clear that they are understaffed and many don’t seem to have enough training causing things to suffer, the doctors are poorly organised and come round only once a day of necessary, here it appears that they only care about giving patients pain killers and sending them home as they have done this to me many times promising an endoscopy to be done everytime I have been in the hospital and I have been here around 4 times in the past three months each for a period of a week and they still haven’t done anything and just send me home with pain killers and I have had to keep coming back when the pain persisted. Many patients I have spoke to have said they have been discharged without proper treatment an had to come back. Not to mention the ridiculous prices in te shops and cafes! The NHS really need to book up their ideas quickly because it really is shocking. The only good part to my visit was being in j46 the staff are great, sadly the rest of the hospital isn’t.

I am really worried that this is going to turn into some sort of political rant but I guess i just have to say what I have to say.
Firstly, as a retail outlet (I can’t believe I’m saying that) St James’, and particularly Gledhow wing, is well over priced. On entering I am reminded of an airport departure lounge and, in common with these, the retailers are aware that they are serving a captive audience and quite obviously have no problem in profiting from peoples misfortune. I’m sure that these shiny new retail units are making lots of money for someone and it’s good to know that, somewhere, there are happy people. More worrying was the comment of the assistant in one of these retail units when I commented on the excessive profits. I won’t repeat his words but his comment on who profits was clearly racist.
As a hospital (yes they still have room for that sort of stuff) I was left feeling saddened and extremely worried. I ha ve been visiting St James’ daily for the past three weeks and these are my overall impressions:
I have the up-​most respect for most of the individuals who provide nursing and support care but, as a qualified nurse, I worried that many staff seem under trained for the role they find themselves in and they are obviously very stressed. It is unacceptable to ‘forget’ a patients medication, neglect hygiene needs or protect patients from harm.
Staffing levels are low and patient care suffers because of this.
Recently I spent a night on the assessment ward where there were several patients in the corridor due to lack of space some of whom had been waiting 12 hours for a bed (and some of these patients were planned admissions, asked to come in because a bed was ready for them).
Don’t even get me started on the cost of parking…

I came to the A&E department at St James’ yesterday after accidentally slicing the top of my finger off and although the wait was pretty hefty (2 hours), it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it’d be. The reception staff were friendly and just the right side of sympathetic, and kindly sent me through to the minor injuries people to get my fingertip temporarily dressed while I waited for the full assessment. The only reason I’ve knocked a star off is because when I was sitting in my cubicle waiting for my painkillers and steristrips and the like I saw on the computer monitor that there were 8 of us who had been waiting longer than the target 1 hour 30 mins which seemed lots. OK, so that’s actually half a star. The other half is for the vending machine charging me 70p for some rolos.

Another weekend, another injury that could have been avoid if I hadn’t been so ridiculously malcoordinated. Long story short it involves my wrist, a loose cupboard door and an industrial sized tin of tomatoes. Cue Saturday afternoon trip to accident and emergency and lots of apologising for being a bit of a nuisance. The wait was considerably shorter than I would have expected considering its one of only two accident and emergencies in Leeds. I was taken through to have my wrist x-​rayed and the staff were lovely, explaining to me the whole time what was going to happen. Within the hour they had found I had fractured my wrist and then a really sweet nurse set about plastering it. Most hospitals have an element of being quite depressing and this one is no different. Where it does differ is that the staff here is all really friendly, from the doctors to the receptionist. No one likes a hospital trip and hopefully you will never have to visit here but if you do you are in good hands.

St James University Hospital, otherwise known as «Jimmy’s» is one of five teaching hospitals in Leeds, all part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust. If you are doing/​planning on doing an NHS based course in Leeds, it is possible that you will spend some of your time learning here at Jimmy’s.
I recently had to go into St James’ for a check up. Everything turned out to be absolutely fine but I was very nervous. Hospitals are never a nice place to be and always provoke thoughts of a morbid nature, or in my case, memories of my foolish childhood injuries which must have wasted many a doctors time (hangs head in shame).
The last time I had been to hospital for myself was when I fell out of my bunk bed and sprained my wrist. I had been trying to do some kind of circus trick on the ladder part of the bed and flew off, it didn’t quite go as planned. I was 8 years old at the time so I’d been doing pretty well at staying away and keeping myself in one piece since. Before that was when I got a washer (a flat round piece of metal with a hole though it) stuck on my finger pretending it was a wedding ring. 6 sweating nurses and an angle grinder later, it was freed, much to the delight of my very pissed off mum. Err… ooops?
When I arrived at St James’s hospital it was busy and had that familiar hospital smell that always makes me feel sick. It was well sign posted and I was able to find where I needed to be easily without asking anyone for directions. The waiting room was clean and warm with really comfy chairs, and the desk staff were all really smiley and friendly which made me feel more relaxed. I didn’t have to wait long at all, and the doctors I saw were very nice, they made me feel very comfortable. I felt very safe and in good hands and left feeling much better than I did when I went in, with my mind at rest.

St James University Hospital on Beckett Street in Leeds is better known as Jimmys (yes from the 90s TV show.) and is a hospital recently modernised with a brand new oncology unit specialising in chemo and radiotherapy. My mum visited here for cancer treatment in March 2008 and the level of care is excellent. The staff are lovely. They obviously work long hours and have to put up with so much but they never let it show and are so nice. It also has a great childrens ward famed for it’s high level of care, and lots more. The facilities for day patients and visitors are good, with a fully subsidised restaurant, shop, and lots more. The hospital is next to a medical museum which is a great way to entertain kids if you are going up that way! An asset to the area and a highly respected teaching hospital.

I went to the maternity unit recently to visit my son. The staff were overstreched and there were no beds. I had wait in the assessment unit while I was in labour. I wasn’t given any pain relief or examined even thought I asked 3 times for pain relief. The last time my contractions were coming all the time and were of course very painful still told no beds until suddenly my waterbroke and the baby was clearly coming. I was rushed into the deliverly suite were I delivered my baby minites later with midwifes who known nothing about me or even my full name (so much for a birth plan). It was quite scary I had no pain relief, thank goodness it was quick. They staff who delivered my baby were wonderful and do an amazing job but clearly the unit needs more funding and more staff urgently.

I had the misfortune to have to accompany a child into the oncology section of this hospital — and that is what I base my review on. It was terrifying to see so many very, very sick children. The staff who work here were wonderful — they took so much trouble to try and keep the waiting kids amused and nothing was too much trouble. The doctor we dealt with was incredibly kind and did a miraculous job on the child I was with. I had to go many times and although you’d normally wait an age to be seen (even with an appointment) the treatment was done with great expertise and care. The positive is said child made a full recovery and a lot of that is down to the skill of the people at Jimmy’s.

A huge sprawling hospital with very good facilities generally and a particularly impressive new oncology wing.
Parking is easier now witha new multi storey carpark, but, as with most hospitals parking is expensive
Staff are very professional and caring and I have no major complaints other than about the pharmacy, which is often frustratingly slow.

I had my son in the maternity section last December this review is of that section only.
I got to hospital and was already 8 cm dialated. I was in a lot of pain and asked for drugs. The midwife gave me pethadine when really I was too far gone and if she had tried gas and air first she would have seen I didn’t really need another drug.
Anyhow my sons heartbeat dropped rapidly about 5 minutes after the pethadine and they had to vontuse him out of me. Wasn’t an horrendous experiance but I do think more care could have been taken with what drugs they administered. My son had been born half an hour before the pethadine actually started to work on me.
The after care was average, the ward and delivery suite were extremely busy. It was 2 hours before I could even get a bath but that wasn’t down to neglect it was just a queing system