Norfolk And Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

My husband contacted Pals earlier this year regarding cancellation of his renal out patient appointment at short notice when his consultant left and no alternative appointment was offered. PALS did not respond in a timely manner and when they eventually did (weeks later) made the excuse of staff sickness. If they are so under resourced it is worrying where patients can go for advocacy when things go wrong if Healthwatch is abolished.

Nine years of debilitating bowel symptoms, significantly affecting my quality of life. My NNUH experience has been one of delay, poor follow-through, and distressing and dismissive conduct from the medical and secretarial teams.

Key concerns:

• Initial two appointments with no physical examination,

• Recommended investigations (MRI, colonoscopy) were never completed by NNUH. I pursued these privately at personal cost.

• A surgical referral, recommended by my private consultant ... in July 2024, remain uncompleted to this day despite GP and consultant follow-up.

• After being told "there is no reason we can't get you better" and that follow-up appointments would focus on addressing the symptoms (confirmed in clinic letter to my GP), I was discharged without notice in December 2024 with an IBS diagnosis, with no explanation for why the outstanding investigations were not being pursued.

• The secretarial team are extremely hostile to both me and my GP. My GP's site manager documented in writing that the same secretary accused her of lying, blamed the GP practice for my complaints, and hung up over a clinic letter the department itself had failed to send.

I'm waiting for knee surgery which the consultant said he'd do tomorrow if he could but I've got to have a cardio check first, which is a 24-week wait. All in all I've been waiting about four years and it gets worse over time. However, I understand why and I'm happy to wait my turn.

The oncology is brilliant and I can't fault them.
The way they explain everything to me and the speed of appointments is fantastic. They give you choice which is good.
The free parking that you get while having treatment in oncology is good, but hard to get parked during the day, evenings is fine though.

I've had to visit Cromer Hospital twice over the past few days. Firstly for a shoulder x-ray, plus a visit to the Minor Injuries Unit (due to a cut thumb which led to an infection). Both visits were a fantastic experience as a patient. My x-ray appointment was on time and carried out expertly. As for my infected thumb, the MIU Team were thorough, attentive and dealt with the problem expertly. I cannot stress how caring and efficient the staff were on my visits. This facility is brilliant for us ... North Norfolk folk, and Cromer Hospital is a real gem in the NNUH crown. Thank you so much.

My 8 year old son had it confirmed in March that he has hearing loss but he can't have hearing aids until after his next appointment which isn't until October. He's really struggling in school.
They were polite, and it was clean and efficient when we were in there.

We had a great service going to children ED. Very quick and finished in half an hour. Staff were all friendly and kind.

Only criticism is we were taken through the middle of ED where all the adult patients are to get to children’s ED. My daughter was already anxious and has phobias around “catching illness” since Covid, plus would be upset if she saw blood, crying, people in pain, drunk adults, people being sick etc. I don’t know why we went that way, when you could go down the green ... CT/MRI corridor and avoid the adult patients.

I visited A and E and the staff I saw were all very good. The ST2 doctor would get 5 stars. However there are too many departments and I think the patients in A and E need better supervising. There were people needing help and nobody to help them, so I would give this only 2 stars.

For the second time in 4 months my experience in A&E was dreadful, the first time I was sent home on morphine and no proper examination resulting in a delayed diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer which was only discovered after I paid for a MRI scan. Yesterday I was taken to A&E by ambulance for a blood test and ECG after suffering with chest pains and despite clearly telling everyone I was given chemotherapy a few days earlier and was immuno compromised there seemed absolutely no precautions being take ... n to protect me from infection and after being dumped in a waiting room full of people coughing and snuffling I waited nearly 3 hours for the results of the blood test which I never received, I then had an anxiety/panic attack when I asked would I need to wait much longer and voiced my concerns that I was supposed to stay clear of possible viruses and was told I would be crossed off the list by someone in reception. The whole system seemed chaotic and poorly managed with no consideration for people waiting hours to be seen with no information what was happening

I went to the hospital with sight issues and was admitted as they said it was a stroke. On the ward, it took four days for me to have a scan. All the media campaigns tell you to act fast with a stroke so I don't understand why it took so long.
The first doctor told me it was a tumour and I'd have to go to Addenbrookes but then another one came and said it was a clot.
However the nurses were very good, and I was connected with lots of different support services while I was there.