"Falkirk Ophthalmology Minor Ops"

In February I had contacted my GP about a lump on the inside of my right eye that was itchy and uncomfortable. Four months later I had my appointment at Falkirk Community Hospital for a minor op to have it removed. Now in the letter they gave me I was told not to drive but very little other information other than the date and time of my appointment. As I was told not to drive to the appointment I had to ask my 85 year old grandparents if they would be able to take me, which they kindly agreed to, as no other family members were able to take me.

I got to the hospital and first met a lovely member of staff,  but once they had finished checking my vision and filling in my file I was handed over to another practitioner . They came out of a different room wearing gloves which they kept on as they proceeded to flick through my file before touching my face. As someone with a basic knowledge of infection control this is not something I was comfortable with as I do not know how long they had these gloves on prior to my consultation. I wasn’t asked to follow them into a separate room before they started touching around my eye either. I was still sat in the corridor with no privacy directly next to the nurses station where all their paperwork was kept.

After having a poke around my eye and changing glasses (all while wearing the same gloves and not once taking them off/changing them or sanitising hands after pulling glasses cases out of pockets and swapping glasses) I was told that there was no cosmetic purpose in removing the lump on my eye which may be a fatty lump. It may be a swollen sweat gland, it may be something else. I informed them that the lump was itchy and uncomfortable . The response, which I felt was in quite a rude tone and which made me feel stupid, was that it was not the lump making my eye itchy but in fact the glands under my eye which were blocked and I was sent on my way with a box of eye drops. 

To top this off I was informed that the lump on my eye won’t go anywhere and to contact my optician when it gets bigger. For someone with anxiety this isn’t exactly a comfortable situation for me.  You have now made this tomorrows problem and this means that I will be worrying about this lump on my eye for even longer.  Being told to use eye drops and come back when the problem was bigger was not what I took half a day off my work to do.

The lack of privacy having the entire conversation in the middle of a hospital hallway next to the nurses station was not a comfortable experience. I had been booked in for a minor op and I really would have rather had that today and taken the small scar to have this lump off my eye than have to now be checking it every day to see if it has grown or stayed the same size. Also I am unsure how they were able to decide that the glands under my eye were blocked when they only looked at them with glasses on. My understanding from visits to the optician is that a magnifying glass is required to view the state of these glands. 

Now instead of having an unknown lump that is itchy and has been incredibly uncomfortable removed I have eye drops and still no one seems to know what the lump actually is. 

From an infection control standpoint and a patient confidentiality standpoint I do not feel this was on.