"Most of the members of staff were..."

What I liked

Most of the members of staff were pleasant and treated me well and were kind, however i think the bad outweighed the good of my stay.

What could be improved

Communication, My mother arrived at the hospital at 7am as requested, and obviously she appreciated waiting times and that there is a queing system, however she was informed she was late morning to early afternoon when in fact she was not taken by the porter until 6.30pm which quite frankly I found unacceptable, she was just keen to get her operation over with, however i think asked a patient to wait 11 hours 30 minutes with one small beaker of water and no food (which i realise is a pre operative routine) however she is 56 and due to her previous health conditions this resulted in her feeling unwell, achey, dizzy and many other negative side effects. I do appreciate that surgery can change and procedures can end up taking longer than expected and that there is a surgery order for a reason, however I feel that a late morning to early afternoon estimation vs a 6.30pm reality is quite a lot of difference and not very good patient care.

Anything else?

I was also upset to hear that after a reconstructive surgery which required my mother to wear a supportive garment which is usually provided by the hospital however she was only provided with a size XL (for a woman who would be a S to a M at very most) and the nurses were most unhelpful trying to explain what she could do (their only suggestion was to buy the item from marks and spencers which would be at least £15-£20) and at times were talking at great volume over my mother which is not how someone would wish to be spoken to at the best of times, let alone after a 12 hour wait and then an operation. My mother did suggest perhaps someone could call Bedford hospital (as that is actually where we are from) however the staff were not happy to do this (despite this support garment being a crutial part of the aftercare after these types of operation) and the only reason my mother was supplied with the correct sized garment is because another patient became involved and gave the nurses the number of the bedford care nurse within the speciality who was happy to provide my mother with what she needed. I just felt that these members of staff (although it was not all members of staff, most were very pleasant) could have more empathy and deal with situations in a slightly more professional way. It would also have been pleasant to have been updated more often when waiting the previous day as after being told late morning to early afternoon we were not informed again was most unsetteling.