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Food writer's community hospitals plea
A famous food writer has called for more community hospitals after comparing the care her dying mother received to a 'five-star hotel'.
Tamasin Day-Lewis, the sister of Hollywood actor Daniel Day-Lewis, has praised Petersfield Community Hospital, which is run by local GPs, for the way it looked after her 84-year-old mother, Jill Balcon, during her final days.
But she criticised the initial care her mum received at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, describing it as 'Crimean'.
Ms Day-Lewis, herself a famous actress who lived in Steep, said while at QA her mother was told she had a terminal condition by doctors without a family member present.
In an article in a national newspaper, she wrote: 'After Mama's dark hours spent awaiting medical attention at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, and a temporary berth in a holding ward, she was moved to a geriatric ward where the patients' crying and nocturnal ramblings led her to refer to them as "the maddies" and the place as "Bedlam".
'The long, Crimean corridor of flimsy-curtained beds was a stark, sleepless place to be.'
Soon after the QA visit, Ms Balcon was found a place at Petersfield Community Hospital, which she described as 'heaven'.
Ms Day-Lewis, who attended Bedales School, near Petersfield, and now lives in Somerset, told The News: 'We would not have got better care. I think the facility, in an ideal world, should be open to everybody.' Ms Balcon died on July 18 surrounded by her family.
In response to Mrs Day-Lewis's claims over QA, a spokeswoman for Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust said: 'Patient care is our top priority and for the second year running we have been independently rated as providing an excellent standard of care and we aim to provide this to every patient.'
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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