Wards at King's college hospital

[TiaLi]

Does anyone know what the post-surgery hospital ward is like at King's? I know there are several, but I assume general facilities will be fairly similar in all of them.

- How many people roughly per ward? Is it one big one or are patients divided between smaller rooms? How many people per room?
- Will I have privacy? Can you for example pull drapes around the bed?
- Is there a safe place to store your valuables (such as a locker by the bed)? And if so, how big is it? Could it fit a laptop?
- How was your hospital stay overall?

I have a slight phobia of hospitals and generally find that I do better if I know what to expect, so descriptions like these would really help!

 

[TiaLi]

Anyone?

 

[Quinn]

I am wondering this same thing. This is where I will be going as well.

 

[TiaLi]

I've had my surgery now, so I can answer this for you. King's have several surgical wards, and you won't really find out which one you'll be at until the day before (it's all about finding beds, so they can't really plan ahead). I was at the Coptcoat ward, which is in King's new Centenary Wing. We were five patients in one big room, and you have drapes you can pull around your bed for privacy. Before you head down to surgery, you will be asked if you have any valuables, and the nurses will put that in a safe for you while you are down in surgery. Once I was out of surgery and back at the ward, I asked for them back. I kept everything with me by my bed after that. There was a small cupboard next to the bed, but I can't remember if you could actually lock it. You can always keep your purse etc in the safe until you are discharged though.

When I ended up in hospital again two months post op (difficulty eating and drinking) I was in another surgical ward called Brunel. That ward was a bit more run down, and the rooms smaller (six beds per room, and the room itself was much smaller as well). Personally, I preferred Brunel however, the staff there were lovely.