"My surgeon was great, always reassured ..."

What I liked

My surgeon was great, always reassured me and took time to ensure I understood things. They was polite and respectful. I did not have to wait long for my surgery.

The discharge information sheet I recieved after my operation was very informative.

What could be improved

I received my operation date to come in letter only 4 days before I had my operation and this left me little time to sort out things like childcare.

The noise on nights in HDU was unbelievable, I can still recall what the nurses were going to order from their avon book!

The ward nursing staff were in my opinion a bit ignorant. Being a nurse myself I felt their attitude lacked compassion and they never introduced themsleves. I felt that I had lost my identity and was just another patient and when I tried to suggest things to the nurses they often ignored my concerns and I lost confidence in them and felt patronised.

The ward I was on after my operation was quite old and scruffy. The ladies toilets were grotty and when my catheter was removed I was asked to pass water into a liner and leave it on the floor in the toilets. These were often left for long periods of time and one one occasion there were 5 already lined up by other patients. Plus you had to write your name on it with a broken pen tied to the wall with string. Very undignified, I didn't want people knowing it was me who had left the urine! As you can probably imagine it smelled awful in that toilet and this is where the shower was too. It was not nice stepping past these liners to try and get to the shower never mind being an infection control risk.

Food was poor quality.

I could not wait to get home!

Out patient clinicas were always running late, out of the 3 appointments I attended I was always waiting an hour or more to be seen, when you are paying through the nose for car parking here I feel there should be some sort of system in place so that if your appointment is late your car parking charge is capped and you do not enter the next tariff which I often did.

Anything else?

Although some of my comments are negative I am aware that this is a busy teaching hospital and services are in demand. I could not have the operation I had at my local hospital as they do not do it there. I would recommend the hospital overall because my consulant was great and always put me at ease and restored my confidence.