"Cancellation due to bed availability"

I would like to give feedback in relation to my experience. I was required to arrive no later than 7.0clock in readiness for a morning operation. this required leaving my home to be certain of timing at 4.30am, get up time 3.45am. Having been signed in I was taken to the ward in hope of a morning operation as per schedule. The anesthetist came to talk me through the operation by 8.00am which boosted my confidence to everything being on schedule. Bloods were taken not long after which took two nurses 5 stabs to obtain blood from me. (Good job I hold no phobia's for blood).

I was waiting for 7 hours only to be told that they hadn't a bed for me. I can only assume that the bed they were referring to was the one to be allocated to me for the overnight stay required in line with my operation of a VNS implant. I couldn't assume that they meant operating table as that would only affect time schedules. It made me extremely angry when around me were up to six empty beds one of which could have been used. Be it not as comfortable as a ward bed (assuming they are different) I could/should have been asked if that would be ok to remain on my current bed to which my answer would have been a resounding YES! My travel distance for the operation was 80 miles thats 160 miles for my daughter in law + another the same for pick up to go home. That's 320 miles of time and fuel wasted.

I now have another operation to be scheduled hopefully within a month. My assumption around this situation is that possibly that an emergency patient had arrived and had to take up my bed allocation which is fine I wouldn't have minded in the least. I'd much rather have a different kind of bed than waste 320 miles in time and travel. When you consider the mental impact that this also has on the patient it is just unacceptable. All that was required was to be asked about the bed situation. In light of this assuming all is correct then the ward type I was in could provide any shortfall in ward beds and keep the job moving. Good for the patient, good for the hospital. You just need to ask.