"lack of planning for Hospital admission - complete disgrace."

My husband has been waiting since March for a major operation which we have been phoning religiously in the last 3 months to get updates on where he is on the list and the likely date for admission. Our rush for the operation is not only for health reasons but family ones too as we live 1hr 15 mins at least from the hospital, have a ten year old and I am pregnant. We wished the operation if possible during the school holidays so I did not need to travel and my son and I could stay in Glasgow.This has not only been frustrating enough but it gets worse.

We received a letter one Friday to say pre-op would be on the following Friday at 1300. We then phoned the medical secretary, when phoning the medical secretary we were told the hospital admission would be on the Tuesday after the pre-op and that we would receive a letter explaining this in the next week. This letter never arrived. We waited until one week before the admission date we were given and phoned medical secretary to be told "don't know how that happened I will send another one out". This was in our eyes no use as we needed to know to make arrangements and we asked for this to be scanned and emailed to be told " thats right I could do that couldn't I". We received the scanned letter however the original letter in the post never arrived . If we had not phoned we would have been oblivious to the admission date and missed op.

Saga does not stop there. My husband arrived on Friday leaving work early , driving 1he 15 mins in heavy traffic and paying for/arranging for after school care for our son as I was also at work and my husband was to do pick up. My husband arrived at pre-op clinic to be told another letter had been sent out and his appointment had been cancelled until the Monday at 1300. As a health professional myself I consider a pre-op less than 24hrs before the operation to be unacceptable as this does not give enough time to rectify any problems highlighted e.g. to stop drugs that may need to be stopped etc. I also find it unacceptable the manner of the nurse in the pre-op clinic. When my husband got told this he said he had never received this letter and he was here now, had left work early, travelled a distance and wished the pre-op today. The nurse replied that he would not have pre-op, the clinic was full and that he would need to return on Monday". The nurse's manner was not good.  On getting home we checked the post. Letter had been delivered by post on the date the original pre-op was planned for. Letter was dated inside as having been typed two days prior to this but postal date on envelope was day before the original pre-op date. To receive the letter on day of appointment when people are at work and have taken time off is totally unacceptable.

Now my husband has to cancel more teaching on Monday(time he cannot afford as he will be off for at least 8 weeks) to travel a distance again, pay for after school to attend pre-op for 2 hrs then return home about 5pm to then have to leave again to return to Glasgow as we need to stay overnight in a Glasgow hotel as admission is at 0715 and he would need to leave at crack of dawn to get there in time otherwise. Hardly rest and relaxation before a major op!

As a senior clinical nurse lecturer I find this totally unacceptable, yes mistakes happen it is human error, I have worked in the NHS long enough to know this, however patients should be treated with dignity and respect and where these mistakes can be resolved then staff should be going out there way to try and do this. Not having a 'tough, oh what a shame " attitude. NHS appointment letters state that if you do not cancel or attend the appointment you can be charged £135, will we be getting a refund of this for all our hassle, not to mention the strain on physical health? I very much doubt it. 

Lets hope the admission is better.