"Day Surgery-come-In-Patient Hernia Repair"

Anything else?

The Day Surgery Unit is extremely busy and I suspect working to full-capacity. Despite this I found the staff to be friendly and approachable. In my case I saw evidence that the leaders of the unit were working to the highest standards of integrity: my safety and well-being as a patient was their prime consideration.

I would emphasis, however, that this is no cottage hospital: it's a large, busy general hospital.

From arriving at the unit to theatre my identity and procedure was checked six times - excellent. They were making sure that they had the right patient for the right procedure.

The ward that I was on - B14 - was busy too. One phrase that I kept hearing from staff was: "I'll just go and double-check." I found this amazingly re-assuring. This suggested to me that staff were guided by the Hippocratic Oath and wanted to make sure that things were done right, and to avoid doing something that would be harmful.

In the lead-up to my admission, which had been cancelled twice, I had to call of the service of PALS. They were exceedingly good in smoothing progress. I thank them.

The day after my discharge from hospital my GP practice telephoned me to check on my condition. They told me that this was a new idea being trialled in the area. This is really good as it will allow patients to report any concerns about their post-discharge progress, and it made me feel that somebody, somewhere in the NHS was still keeping an eye on me during the early days of recovering.