"ARI day admission"

Admitted to Ward 211 in ARI for planned maxillofacial day surgery.  Great care and treatment from ward, surgery and recovery staff. Especially as this Ward is varied in terms of the reasons for admission, the speciality teams that the staff work alongside, and the fast turn around of admissions and discharges.

Couple of aspects where improvements could be considered based on my experience:

Post surgery I was required to stay on ward for at least 4 hours. As a day admission i had to be escorted back home. It would be helpful to provide clearer information in the admission paperwork and processes regarding these timescales.  In my situation that would have allowed the person escorting me to make better plans given we had travelled 1 hour to the hospital (the person escorting me required to leave home at 6.30 am and didn't get home again until 10 pm). Issue in is not with the timescales but more so publicity of this.

On the Ward I couldn't fault the staff bar 2 aspects. 1 was in relation to how a senior nurse spoke to the nurse i was primarily being looked after by. In the middle of a conversation post surgery regarding pain relief she was interrupted as requested to prioritise the striping of used beds. Whilst i completely understand this task was required it was unnecessary to request this at the time and in the manner in which it took place. The nurse was very apologetic about this interruption which was an unfair position for her to be put into.

Secondly due to the delays and timing of my surgery i was unable to have anything to eat until the scheduled tea time. At which point though i was barely able to physically swallow. As such i had over the course of a few hours post-surgery some water, coffee and ice cream. Upon being declared fit for discharge (4 hours post surgery and into late evening) was then advised I must eat something else to be allowed to go home. Had i been told this earlier i would of course tried to eat earlier and not delayed my discharge any further. I felt this could have been raised earlier by staff but it is a minor factor.

All comments given are on the basis they will hopefully allow improvements to be delivered but more importantly to say thank you for the care and treatment received.