"Lovely care but some glitches at North Middlesex Hospital"

I was booked in for a laparotomy at the North Middlesex Hospital. On my arrival on the day of the surgery, I was told that the surgeon would undertake a laparoscopy which was great news as it was a less invasive procedure but I have to wonder why I was booked in for the more serious surgery in the first place.

Saying that the doctors and nursing staff were wonderful. The hospital had been newly refurbished and it showed. There was one nurse in particular who took me into the operating theatre and who was enormously sensitive to my nerves and I'll always be grateful to her.

After I came round I was taken onto a ward and again, the ward nurses were lovely and very kind. It was a positive experience at a difficult time - however there were a few concerns that I retained.

A doctor came to see the patient opposite me. Not only was his manner very terse with her but I could also hear him making a very insensitive comment about her being stubborn, to his students, as he walked away from her bed. Luckily he wasn't my doctor.

The discharge was also a bit of a mess. I knew I was going to be discharged quite early in the day. After lunch I was taken to the discharge lounge to wait for my prescription. The prescription was messed up and got lost and when it finally arrived (after another patient's husband (!) offered to go up to the ward to collect it), it was wrong. I was in an enormous amount of pain and waiting in the discharge lounge which was really uncomfortably hot for about 3 hours - (and on the ward they had told me I'd be able to lie down in the discharge lounge but there weren't any beds there!).

Also when I received a copy of my discharge letter, it gave the wrong operation on it. And they were going to send it to my GP. I mentioned this to the nurse in the discharge lounge as it could have been quite serious.

As for the human care though, it was very good.