"I would like to acknowledge the support"

I am sharing this experience on behalf of my Father in law who has recently received a diagnosis of bowel cancer. As part of the investigations leading to his diagnosis he had to undertake colonoscopy twice. This was a worrying time and I would like to acknowledge the support of the nurses in pre-assessment who explained the process required in preparation for each procedure.

Our only real concern is the conflicting and confusing documents which were provided for reference after we left pre-assessment. As a family it was difficult to navigate the many, many pages of information and then the additional leaflets inside the box of medicine which did not appear to have the same timeframes etc. As a nurse I know information is important but this 'information pack' generated additional stress and confusion in relation to timings and changes in diet and when to start drink the medicine - This added further stress to the situation.

It would be important the service reviews what is given out to patients and families - even work with some families to identify what we would like to know and how to best present it. The pages weren't even stapled or numbered which meant the documents became mixed up. At a time of such concern my father in law was confused about the instructions and the documents provided were not helpful.