"I have been very well looked after by all the WGH..."

What I liked

All the staff who looked after me in WGH Day Care Unit were friendly, informative, supportive and thoroughly professional.

All the staff empathised well with me as a patient awaiting surgery and certainly helped to diffuse my pre-op anxiety with a combination of straight-forward factual information and kind, gentle humour.

The careful advice given to me about the type of anaesthetic and additional intravenous drugs/fluid which I could expect to receive was most thorough. Having previously experienced severe nausea and vomiting following general anaesthetics, I was keen to avoid a repeat, particularly as my surgery was for the repair of a previously repaired inguinal hernia.

My post-op recovery was good and I seemed to have absolutely no ill effects from the anaesthetic.

The standard of care I received on the ward after my operation was very good and, matched that which I received during the morning. I was provided with appropriate light food and drink during the afternoon.

Before being discharged that evening I received clear verbal instructions about my aftercare, as well as being given a discharge form ready for a District Nurse to undertake a wound check in Lancaster the following week.

Although I am writing this just six days after the surgery, I seem to be making good progress and would like to express my sincere thanks to all the staff at WGH who looked after me on 12 October 2011.

What could be improved

Two very minor points:

1. I do not think the appontment letter (possibly from RLI admin) needs to ask inguinal hernia patients to bring a urine sample.

2. The shape and size of the back-up dressings provided for home use would not fit a stitched incision of that length......However, it would churlish to raise that as a criticism because I'm sure that a more accurate size would have been given if the ward had them in stock and, those provided were perfectly adaptable with commonsense and a pair of clean scissors.