Blindness

Right, my name is Colin Gurley. I'm 64 years of age and I live in Brentford. I have a sight condition called dry drusen. I have not actually been into a hospital as an actual overnight patient. However, my last situation at the hospital was in August when I had a slight incident with a tree and unfortunately I then fell over and was rushed to A&E because I had a severe head wound. On the particular experience there I found the actual medical staff and the admins were excellent by getting us in there. My only downside was obviously as you've been in an A&E for nearly six to seven hours, we generally need to go for the toilet. I had to shout out at least four or five times. It would have possibly been better if in fact that the relevant staff there maybe come round just to check on myself to see if you actually need to go for that. I just, not really, I just found that for the majority of the time I was given very good help and assistance with myself. So I sensed most of the time that the staff were very empathic to my situation. What I would like to give to other patients is that you sometimes have to be forthcoming and ask. Is that, if my concern would be, if I was actually wanting to stay in a hospital overnight, because I have next to no sight now, and you have instances like, for example, where's the water jug, where's the food, and what is on the plate? My concern would therefore then be, is to other patients of a similar situation, is ask the nurse to actually explain to you, for example, what is on your plate? Where is your water? And such like. I think that would be what I would like to tell to others that sometimes you have to actually be forthright out and ask. Because the staff member may not actually have experienced someone with such a sight loss. So sometimes you have to be forthcoming and ask. They may not do it, but if you don't ask, they won't do it.