"Not bad but no beds!"

Overall staff were helpful and friendly, it was very obvious that there was shortage of beds- not only was I sent home the night before my surgery after waiting a few hours for one, but there wasn't one available when I arrived in the morning before my surgery and had to sit and wait in the staff room for about an hour. The surgical team were great as were the nursing staff when I came round from the anaesthetic. Unfortunately I missed lunch but the ward 90 nurses managed to get me some cereal to keep me going which I appreciated, although I felt pretty flakey as I didn't get a meal until the evening (surgery was at 8.30 am). Bed shortage became an issue again when I was moved from my room at 3 am to go onto the ward, the staff were apologetic but it was not a very settled or restful night. The physios who came and assessed me following my surgery were really supportive and made sure I got a clean bedsheet while I was up and about. Some delays with being discharged meant I was left quite a while without painkillers due to my forms being held by the pharmacy which was an issue but this got sorted out after the nurses kept chasing it up. In summary, the staff tried their hardest although I did feel the ward was a little too stretched- I was happy to go home and get a good nights sleep!