"Operation fine - A&E and discharge process a..."

Following examination at A&E in the night, I was asked to return to the hospital after breakfast to have an urgent operation that day. Upon returning at 8am, the hospital was unable to locate the A&E notes from 6 hours before, and I was left waiting in bed on a ward for over 6 hours before they found them and were able to proceed with the operation. This was successful but I was then discharged that evening without any arrangements in place for the dressings to be changed the next day (very important) and subsequent days, despite asking who would do this, only being told to call the community nurses. Once home (I live alone), I had to ferret around to find the right number to call, only to discover that the community nurses had not been advised I would need their services and were unable to come out to me the next day. A totally inexperienced, young member of my immediate family actually had to come round the next day to clean, pack and redress my wound - not an experience I would wish to repeat! Finally, a community nurse was able to call on the second day but the whole discharge process was a joke, from start to finish. No wonder people are staying in hospital longer, just to ensure adequate aftercare to an operation - even if it does mean the bed is then not available for new patients!