"Was in Paul Wood Ward - food was ..."

What I liked

Was in Paul Wood Ward - food was quite alright, after all it isn't a restaurant - and the ward I felt was very very clean. That was about all I liked about the place. They cancelled my procedure because of an emergency and I was discharged without it being done. I waited SIX MONTHS to get that slot. I am currently trying to rebook my procedure. Was told that as hospital cancelled the rebooked date would be to suit me as I had been inconvenienced. What a laugh. I am stll trying to get an answer as to when I will come in again - since Thursday 16 June. It is now Wednesday 23 June and I am told they may know this Friday, or maybe next Monday. I am beginning to feel sometime never. I have never seen such disorganisation before. I had better treatment at Barnstable and Exeter Hospitals. Their tests were on time and I don't remember losing my temper as many times as I did at the Royal Brompton Hospital. The doctors and nurses seem blissfully unaware of how inconvenienced I was by this cancellation. I have a life outside of the NHS and I now have to rearrange all the arrangements I made based on the procedure being done on the 15th June. My life is on hold and has been since my problems were diagnosed way back in March 2009. I am still waiting for a resolution to my problems. I am totally underwhelmed by the whole experience.

What could be improved

Better organisation of the hospital. Tell the nurses what is going on - they are the front line staff who the patients look to for information. Tell them when there is an emergency in the Lab. or whereever it was that my test was supposed to take place. They simply did not know why I was waiting when I was 2nd on the list. I went without food for some 22 hrs for nothing - nothing short of shameful in a hospital. Also why do so many staff go off on conferences to foreign countries, when there are patients needing them back home in England - it doesn't make sense to me. My cancelled procedure could not be done on the booked date, i.e. Tuesday 15 June, due to an emergency. I understood that, but what I could not understand is why it couldn't be done the next day or day after - it was after all only a 20 minute procedure. I was told that the only doctor capable of administering the 20 minute procedure was going off to a conference for 3 - 4 days the day after, so they could not fit me in and I was discharged and told to rebook. I was absolutely stunned.

The Royal Brompton Hospital is supposed to be the country's leading heart hospital, yet they only have one doctor who can administer a TOE test - you couldn't make it up!!

Anything else?

I think I have covered how I feel in the two preceeding sections. I am just so so angry and no-one at the NHS seems to give a fig!