"Very poor communication"

After seeing the consultant at the hospital on 19th August an operation date of 18th November was agreed, and that was it, no communication at all from the hospital for almost 10 weeks.

Several messages were left on the answer phone but these were never responded to.

The only way to get a response was for a receptionist to physically go and speak to the booking office. There then followed a couple of quick calls as it was realised that I needed a pre-op and for some reason the date of the operation was moved forward a day to the 17th November. As I was out of the country between 7 & 15th November, time was tight but a pre-op was arranged for the 5th Nov.

On the day of the operation I arrived at 1pm as arranged and told I was in a shared room. My wife accompanied me to the room but she was immediately turned around and told she couldn't stay with me for a while as there was another male patient there. The nurse pointed to the bed, told me it was mine and then walked my wife out, I was not given any information whatsoever.

A few minutes later the consultant came and spoke to me and informed me that I was the last procedure and that it would likely be between 4 & 5pm before anything happened so I sat in my chair and watched TV.

40 minutes after being shown to my bed a nurse was surprised to find I wasn't changed. When I told the nurse that I was delaying having to sit around in a hospital gown for as long as I could, I was told that I didn't know when I would be called for and was a little taken aback when I told the nurse I'd spoken to the consultant.

I was then measured for stockings and told that maybe I could remain in my own clothes for about another hour.

The operation was later than expected and I remained in overnight.

Pain relief seems out of sync. After several hours I needed to get up, not having any pain relief that I was aware of, it's was agony. After getting back into bed I was then given pain relief, but a few hours later when I had to get up again the effects had worn off so it was agony again followed by medication, to me a more structured approach would have meant that I wouldn't have had peaks and troughs of pain.

My wife, as instructed, also contacted the hospital twice and left a message on the answer phone to enquire about me but did not get a response to either call. She only found out I was staying in from calls from me.