"Very reassuring professional staff"

I just wanted to reflect my excellent experience of health care in the cardiology unit at the Golden Jubilee National hospital. My clerking in was conducted timely and well and my pre operative prep was efficient and thorough. This was very reassuring as its was clear the cardiology team was focusing on safety and my patient care. My procedure had me sedated and conscious and the team were very attentive as to my care needs, pain relief and information giving.

Due to my own innate curiosity I would have liked to seen the screens showing what the team were doing as I could see glimpses of the main screens. My procedure took longer then planned as I had a challenging septum lol! . However, the professionalism of the team as the dealt with this in a "routine" way was very reassuring and and my procedure was successful.

My post procedure care on the Cardiology ward D was also very good, with the nursing team equally professional and empathetic and timeous as I had to have constant monitoring and checking of my pain levels and support when I had my catheter removed was excellent.

My only complaint was portion size of meals, as I was not allowed to eat for 24 hours the cheese salad, sandwich and then my small bowl of porridge for breakfast and roll were not sufficent. I could of asked for more possibly, but it would have been nice to have been offered.

My reflections on my experience about what could of been done better included:

1- A truer reflection of the range in pain levels you experience when ablation commences. It was on a range up to 10 8 to 9 for me. Again I would like to point out the team monitored me constantly and administered pain relief quickly

2- Given the opportunity to observe the screens as distraction for me also helped re pain relief and coping with the fact I had to lie still on my back for circa 4 hours

3- Discharge and what to expect after the ablation. The discharge info covered the first 48 hours only there was no signposting to info etc on the disharge letter/info. There is a plethroa of info on the internet and youtube. I have subsequently found this link- Ten things to expect after ablation therapy for AF" very helpful for my particular circumstances.