"Outpatient procedure not viable for all patients"

I am visiting soon for a gastroenterology capsule procedure.

The procedure requires that I eat nothing for 12 hours and also take a bowel clearance preparation to completely clear the gut to allow the capsule camera to see inside the small bowel.

We live in Barnstaple. I am in my 70s.

I have to be at Wonsford by 7.30 am....after having taken the above preparation, which is not pleasant and will cause issues of diarrhoea specifically to evacuate the bowel. I also have an issue with my prostate which often means that I have to visit the loo every hour or so.

So, you will see that undergoing this preparation the previous evening, and usually being kept up til early morning because of the preparation and then travelling for a couple of hours to an unfamiliar hospital and probably needing the loo either for bladder or bowel issues has all the hallmarks of an unpleasant experience!

Once I arrive at the ward and the camera has been installed I am then to be immediately discharged to wander around Exeter or the hospital, with an external camera monitor attached, until 6.00 pm. I am then to return to the Gastro department to have external camera monitor equipment removed. During most of that time I believe I must not eat anything as it interferes with the camera viewing.

After removal of the equipment I am then presumably meant to drive home.

So my point here is that treating this as an entirely outpatient treatment for patients travelling from afar, given the preparations and processes before and after treatment, is really not viable for all patients, particularly if they are older and more frail than I am.

Fortunately we have a MotorHome and after a lot of discussions with Nurses, PALs and The Parking management team we believe we can park in the hospital carpark overnight, perhaps for 2 nights, and use our MotorHome as a base for the preparation, treatment and aftermath of the treatment...including, one imagines, some after-effects of not eating for almost 24 hours.

The only other possibility would have been a hotel stay for one or two nights, but these are very expensive and are often unable to accommodate dietary demands of my wife and I.

It has to be said that all nurses and appointment teams have been extremely kind and helpful, as have PALS and parking team, but it seems that this is the only way that the procedure can be provided and one has to accept the challenge of attending this procedure from afar with all of the problems it generates.

We have our fingers crossed that parking at the hospital wont be a problem and that we don’t end up with a fine for a long stay in our MotorHome or that height restriction barriers prevent us staying overnight etc.