"My operation day"

The staff are all very friendly, kind and hard working and I would like to start by getting that across. Anything I add is just how my experience could have been more positive. I arrived to be admitted at 12 today and was called to do paperwork at about 12. 20ish. I was then taken to a room and a doctor came to have me sign the consent form shortly after. I went down for the operation at 4. 30. This is fine and I understand that it is a busy place but some communication during this time for me, feeling quite anxious, would have been nice as I had assumed I would be going imminently after the doctor came. I also had a some conflicting info. I Was told in my letter that I would need 3 hrs in the ward, then 4 hours, in fact it was 3. No big deal but had to re-organise my lift a couple of times! One nurse came and said I could have a sandwich straight away and while she was off getting it, another nurse said I could have a glass of water and if I kept that down, I could have something to eat, I told her someone else had said I could eat, the sandwich arrived so I ate it! I didn't know that I could call the ward if I had any problems day or night, I was told this my a lovely nurse who I happened to be in the lift with. One nurse told me not to get out of bed on my own for 1 hour but when a pressed the bell to get up and go to the loo 10 mins later, another nurse said it was fine for me to get up. These are all really small things and may sound petty but when you are feeling anxious about the whole thing, it exacerbates it when you don't feel absolutely confident in your surroundings I suppose!

I just think that there could be a little bit more communication between staff with patients and staff with staff. I have only had one surgery before, years ago and don't 'know the ropes', maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway I am really grateful to all the wonderful staff at Broomfield and just wanted to give some 'even better if' comments! Many thanks. One more thing..not quite sure why you don't get retested for MRSA just before going in? My pre-op was in March and op in June, couldn't I have contracted it in that time?