"Let down by the bureaucratic failings."

What I liked

The staff on the ward were friendly and took time to ensure their communications were understood.

What could be improved

No advice was given in advance as to the admin. procedures so the reality was completely at odds with our expectations.

The staff at the reception desk did not seem very concerned that our expectations were different.

Anything else?

I took my father (88 yrs old) to the hospital for day surgery. His appointment was at 07:30. He had been told at his previous consultation that his op would take 'about 10 - 15 minutes'. On the day we expected some wait but we were completely unprepared for the actual experience. Having paid for parking I was told at the reception to leave my father for admission to a ward and was given a phone number to call in 3 or 4 hours and told to go away. As I live on the other side of London I could not go home and if I had known that this was the procedure I would have arranged with my father to do some of his chores and prepared him better for the day. Because of his poor hearing and eyesight he relies on me or my brother to be around if he has to move around a strange environment or to have conversations with new people so on this occasion he felt he was being abandoned. I had to promise to be close at hand.