The doctors dealing with us seemed not to have had enough back up or enough staff and were very overworked.

I attended St James Hospital for a sleep study, and was wired up by a very helpful sleep lab technician. I was informed by the technician to leave the door unlocked, in case of emergency. I went to bed around 12pm, and I was awakened by the sound of the door being opened. When I looked at the end of the bed, there was a man standing there, when he saw me awake, he quickly exited the room. I telephoned the night nurse and he put a sign on the door "Do not disturb", and then I locked the door. I could not get any explanation from the hospital as to who had entered the room, despite the fact they have CCTV in the corridor of the hospital, and also a camera over the bed in the sleep study room. It was a very frightening experience.

The hospital toilet in the ward was not working for five days.

Not enough beds or nurses in the ICU department for my father to move forward and receive his surgery. He is waiting now nearly three weeks. Something urgently needs to be done to help improve this waiting list for both patients and staff. It is extremely frustrating being told you are going for surgery, getting prepared and then at the last hour it is cancelled.

Catering staff very rude. Anything asked for in a polite manner, the answer was alway a NO, such as extra slice of bread. Another time I asked for pepper as there was only salt on the tray, again NO, however a nurse did get it for me. No beverage from breakfast till tea time. I asked for coffee after my dinner and was again told NO. The meals were not appealing. Cornflakes smothered in milk, meat smothered in gravy. I felt very intimidated by the rudeness as if I had done something wrong by asking.

If i had an issue it would be the fact that due to lack of money, I feel a cancer patients need more support (stress, depression etc...), but the building which the psychology dept. is housed in is more like a shed, yet the CEO's office is huge. Also, out of hours service is not there for them. More space and modern waiting rooms are badly needed. No public rest areas, only at kylemore or coffee shop, no good if you want to talk to your family on your own.

I had surgery five months ago. I was given no explaination of the surgery, risks, side-effects or aftercare advice. From the time I had the surgery I was in constant pain. I knew something wasn't right. I rang the hospital and was told to go to my GP. My GP discovered I had a surgery-related issue. I rang the clinic I was attending in hospital to be reviewed by my consultant but this was in vain. I left numerous messages on the answering machine but no one returned my calls. I have since received an appointment for the outpatients department for February - this will be 6 months after my procedure. I originally had surgery to improve my quality of life, but now I have no quality of life as I am constantly in agony.

Food did not rate too well.

I found the A&E staff, doctors and nurses very professional, informative and patient. The areas were clean. However once on the wards, the services failed. The wards were not properly cleaned and the nursing staff were not bothered with patient needs. Ignoring patients at times. Very unpleasant environment.

I was looked after very well in St. James' Hospital. I has major surgery which was very daunting for me & all the staff I met from across all levels of the hospital anaesthetists, nurses, doctors, physio therapists, catering staff, care assistants & porters where ALL very nice & help and all helped my recovery to be as succesfull as it has been despite the complications I brought with me due to a different complaint to the one that I actually needed surgery for.

St James' Hospital is an amazing facility. The in patient food was lovely and I had no complaints whatsoever.

I was in A&E from 7.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. for what I thought was a straightforward wound stitching. Turned out I had to have a general anesthetic but was lucky enough not to have to stay overnight. I was treated with kindness and professionalism by every single person. I could not have been treated better in any private hospital. Well done to all staff.

This hospital is hell on earth. I was admitted to A&E by ambulance when I woke up in agony with abdominal pain so severe that I couldn't walk. I was put on a trolley, wheeled into an empty corridor away from the main emergency room, and left there for 6 hours. I was screaming with pain, sweating and throwing up, and numerous doctors and nurses kept walking past me completely ignoring me. I was alone, and several other visitors tried to help me by alerting the nurses to my distress, and they were basically told to mind their own business. After being ignored for 6 hours, a student doctor turned up and took a urine sample from me. After another hour the urine test came back negative for anything, but the doctor told me that she was just assuming that I must have a kidney infection. She didn't even examine my abdomen, and the concept of ordering a scan was out of the question. I was then given a prescription for an ordinary over the counter painkiller, and an antibiotic for an infection that didn't exist in the first place. I was then left in floods of tears, to drag myself down off the trolley and limp out of the hospital without any help. It was the most humiliating, dangerous, degrading treatment I have ever experienced in my life. Within hours of being discharged from there I was in a private VHI clinic paying for an ultrasound scan, which revealed an enormous ovarian cyst that was on the verge of bursting. I was admitted to the Coombe as an emergency within an hour, and there I received outstanding care and thankfully had successful surgery. Needless to say I wrote to the CEO at St James's hospital with details of my disgraceful visit to their A&E, and it wasn't acknowleged. To top it all off, they set debt collectors on me while I was recuperating from my surgery, to retrieve a €100 fee for the visit to A&E which nearly killed me!! The only word I can use to describe this hospital and its policies is HORRIFIC. Avoid at all costs, no matter what alternative you have to take.

Great work by all the staff

Nursing staff range from excellent to couldn't care less and sometimes treated patient as a nuisance and showed very little interest in patients complaints of being in pain.

I am still awaiting a reply to a complaint i made in writing on the 16th March 2012.I

Admitted with a kidney infection... ended up in hospital for a week and a half! Was heartbroken to be missing end stages in the championship!! (Although was allowed out to watch my team play once!) Moved around a lot - 3 different wards, all adequate - and then Hospital 4. Didn't exactly know why I was there but the staff were thrilled to have a younger person to chat to - the rest of the patients were quite elderly. I don't know whether it was a novelty for them or not but I was treated really well there by all staff, so accommodating and kind. My only complaint was a few doctors did not know how to or were extremely nervous putting in my cannula. My hands were so so sore and bruised! The nurses were so much more competent!! I know the doctors have to learn somewhere and get used to it... but my god I got some gems during my 10 day stay!! Other than that all good.

Very disappointed with the after care after my op-some of the nurses were cold in there approach was only interested in giving the meds out and logging them in there book and getting the patients to sleep. I got no info on what to do when I got home from my team of doctors who when they did their rounds in the mornings didn't even look at me-they just talked about me to each other. Found the whole experience cold and just felt like a number .

Very poor after care regarding follow up appt which led to my husband missing two appts and attending an overbooked clinic.

My mother broke her wrist and fractured her shoulder in a fall in late July. She was taken early afternoon by ambulance to A&E. She was seen to by 10pm that evening only to be given pain killers and asked to return the following morning at 9am. the following day, she got a bed and was informed she would require plates either side of her wrist. She was left waiting for surgery until early August. Every evening from the end of July, they fasted her prior to surgery the following day. Every evening the surgeon would promise her that she would be done 'tomorrow' only to be let down four nights in a row. Lack of communication at staff/patient level is only one of the many incompetancies to mention here.

The waiting time in the A&E department is very bad. I was waiting over nine hours to be seen. No accurate indication of the length of time of the wait. With nearly everyone having a mobile phone, people with non critical conditions should be able to leave and be called 30 minutes before they are expected to be called.

I am lucky in that I have two outstanding consultants working for me. I have a rare and so far undiagnosed disease. I am also attending other doctors in St James's. I do feel that with regard to rare diseases in general, treatment is sorely lacking. Even without a diagnosis there were pain relief options, further tests, scans, etc.. that took far too long to be suggested or set up. I feel that the whole system is over-extended, nurses, doctors, consultants, admin, nearly every area. Regardless of blame, the only one suffering is the patient, who is already suffering enough. Improvements need to be made

I personally want to commend Professor Ken O'Byrne for his vision and imagination, without which I would not be completing this survey - I would not be alive. His desire and ability to get things done, his lack of procrastination, enabled me to have my ascending aorta and my aortic valve replaced and have a LUL resection in one 8-hour operation using 20 pints of A -ve blood, in London's King's College Hospital. This was followed by chemo in St James and then radiation in St Luke's. Ten months from surgery to now and I feel that I have started living the rest of my life so I say I Thank God for KO'B!

I received excellent care and attention in St James's Hospital for a once-off planned surgery. Everything I needed to get through was on hand in terms of medical provision and after-care. I cannot praise everyone highly enough, from the cheery people who served the food to the great nursing and medical teams I encountered. THANK YOU all for doing what you do!

On a second admission to this hospital I found the staff to be less than adequate. My mother was given confirmation that the team had discovered her disease had progressed and that her time would be limited. This news was given to her early in the morning and not a single nurse came to see if she was o.k until lunchtime. While some of the nurses were lovely and carried out their work with care and compassion one nurse in particular was very indifferent and showed no compassion whatsoever. She carried out her duties in a manner which I can only describe as rough.

My husband received excellent care in St James Hosp. There is not one thing we could find fault with. The standard of professionalism was very high throughout every department, couldn't recommend it enough if one needs hospitalisation.

Had a follow up call at home the next day (post day surgery)by doctor to check all was well.

I will never ever set foot in St. James's again. The most upsetting experience of my life.

Attending St James's under Dr Vandenberge, a consultant Haematologist. I attend Osteoporosis, Haematology, Orthopaedic, Respiratory, Dermatology clinics. I found hospital to be the best ever and the nurses and consultants are the best in the world.

Left in a mess after my operation. Back again twice and no answers as no one wanted to know.