"Surgery Good - Support poor"

After a year of being passed from one test and the next (pillar to post) by Chelsea & Westminster Hospital I had enough evidence that my enlarged Prostate needed attention.

There is nothing upbeat or encouraging about what I was offered: 'Urolift' (https://urolift.com/urolift-system) and 'staples'being among the seemingly medieval solutions.

Most of what I learned was from searching on the internet rather than in the chat with consultants.

A few simple one page A4 information sheets from the hospital would have very much improved my understanding.

It took months to transfer my 'case' from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to Charing Cross. Administration in the Urology Department of Charing Cross is clearly a struggle.

The Rezum procedure has much less chance of collateral damage than alternative methods and Charing Cross offers this treatment under the NHS where Chelsea and Westminster don't.

Within 20 minutes of coming round from the General Anaesthetic (top marks to the anaesthetist for thorough checks and excellent application of her art) I was asked to complete a patient survey.

I felt sorry for the charming nurse who was carrying out post op. checks and was so overworked that she was bound to make the mistakes she did.

It would have been a good plan for a patient who had undergone the op. the previous week to come into the waiting room before my op. and give us an overview of what was going to happen.

After the op. patients were given a shopping bag packed with "things to attach to the now attached catheter".

The instruction that I was given was wholly insufficient and the contents of the shopping bag did not include any kind of information as to how to go about assembling and using the drainage bags.

Additionally, the 'goody' bag contained a course of antibiotics which kill the fauna and flora in the digestive system resulting in constipation.

The procedure itself seems to have gone well.

The blood which was initially abundantly obvious in the catheter tube and from the urethra tip is no longer evident.

There is a clear flow of urine into the bag and I am now looking forward to passing the TWOC (trial without catheter).

Information about TWOC here: https://www.baus.org.uk/_userfiles/pages/files/Patients/Leaflets/Trial%20without%20catheter.pdf.

The catheter is a pain.

The clonky, oversized connections of the catheter attachments, the lack of knowledge as to how to set up a urine bag and the how the whole catheter thing is quite painful let alone inconvenient.

I am relieved to think that the operation has been a success and I look forward to being able to sleep through the night.

However, it wouldn't cost the NHS any more to take better care of the patient by improving communications and administration.