Dickie Arbiter, royal commentator and former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, was sent to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital suffering from constant pain in his hands. In this video, he talks about the amazing care he received and why the hospital’s new Day Surgery Unit is so important.
Watch the video or read the transcript below.
Being referred to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
I suppose what first put me to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital were my hands.
I suffer a bit from osteoarthritis. My GP said: ‘Well, there’s a good man you could go and see. What he’ll do is up to him’, and he sent me along to see Max Horwitz at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Living with constant pain
The problem was that I was in constant pain. My fingers were in constant pain.
What Max Horwitz described was that the cartilage between the bones had eroded and the bones were rubbing against each other, causing friction, which was causing the pain.
What he did was to try and alleviate that pain by easing the cartilage in the bones.
Having treatment
I came in in the morning. I was greeted by the staff on duty.
They were terrific, as one would expect at Chelsea and Westminster.
They gave me pre-med. The next thing I knew I was going into the theatre, not for a show, well it was a show as far as they were concerned, to be treated on, and then in recovery.
Recovering with physiotherapy
I then went to the Physiotherapy Department, who were absolutely superb and basically taught me how to get my fingers moving again properly on my left hand before, a few weeks later, I had it done on my right hand.
I would say 90% of the pain is gone and that improves, obviously, the quality of life.
Feeling supported by staff
The staff were absolutely fantastic.
You will want of nothing.
Any idea or any thought of apprehension about what was going to happen was dispelled very, very quickly.
On three occasions it was absolutely terrific.
I had the same sort of treatment when I went to the Physiotherapy Department because I had to go there three times to get my limbs working properly, and the physiotherapist there was absolutely superb.
She was terrific.
Looking ahead to a modernised Treatment Centre
I was treated at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, in its Treatment Centre, several years ago but, like everything else, everything needs modernising.
Chelsea and Westminster are doing just that.
They’ve gutted the Treatment Centre. They’re modernising it. It’s going to be state-of-the-art, and it’s going to be in a position to be able to take on 2,000 extra patients a year, which is a big thing in terms of hospital treatment.
CW+ is raising £10m for a new day surgery unit at Chelsea and Westminster so even more people can receive the same outstanding care as Dickie.
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