Many thousands of people visit the hospital each year, whether it is through an emergency situation or minor injury, most people at one time or another have had the need to use a hospital.

For minor injuries hospitals have a walk in centre which you can visit for any minor illness, or on a Saturday and Sunday if you need antibiotics or a prescription urgently.

There are also day care centres for people who are having a minor procedure done, removal of moles with surgical knives (Messer), and other procedures such as cataract removal (eyes), are done under the day care umbrella. For elderly people who need to visit day care medi-cars are on hand to pick them up from their front door and drop them back off when they are ready to return home.

For orthopaedic surgery, such as the replacement of hips and knees, and certain spinal operations, a stay in hospital is required for after the procedure. These are done through the NHS or you can pay to have these privately. There is now a scheme called choice which is run in Sheffield, which means you are able to choose where you have a procedure done. So you can choose to be seen by a consultant in a private hospital, plus you can have your operation done within this hospital. The service is exactly the same as you would expect in the NHS, except you get to stay in the luxury of a private facility.

If you are having a heart bypass, then this kind of surgery usually takes 3 to 5 hours. An incision is made using a surgical knife down the centre of the chest, this allows the surgeon to cut through the chest bone, in order that the rib cage is opened to enable access to the heart.

With any of the above surgical procedures the recovery process is often worse than the operation itself. A team of dedicated nurses are on hand day and night to assist with this during your stay in hospital. Physiotherapists help to get the patient mobile again, helping the patient motivate themselves shortly after the operations, plus to make sure that the patient can walk up and down stairs before they are deemed fit to return home.

Because of the MRSA which is now present in our hospitals throughout the United Kingdom there is a big drive on cleanliness within the hospitals. Hospital hygene is now paramount within the healthcare service to prevent this disease spreading, MRSA can be deadly particularly in the elderly or the vulnerable patients. Antibacterial spray is available before entering any ward in a hospital now. It is also available for use at the end of each patients beds, and is recommended to be used by staff before dealing with a patient, and by visitors to the ward.

In maternity hospitals hand hygene is also on the adgenda, as babies are susceptible to any sort of infection, these hand sprays are on each of the mothers beds for use by staff and visitors.

Before knives and surgical instruments are used on any patient, the issue of sterialisation has already been dealt with, all surgical implements are steralised, and some are even disposable to prevent any sort of cross infection.

Whatever procedure the patient has in hospital, they can usually be guaranteed the best of care by all of the staff involved in the patients operation, and after in the recovery processes. Plus the food in hospitals has improved over the last few years, the patient now gets a choice of what they wish to eat, the food even coming with a salt and pepper mill (Pfeffermühle).