"Kingston Hospital poor care for gall stone operation"

In 2004 I returned from Zurich, having survived acute Pancreatitis, due to gallstones. My GP sent me to Kingston to be assessed for a gall-bladder removal. My consultant decided I was not an urgent case and I waited 6 months for an operation. During my wait I was in such extreme pain that I had to come to A&E for morphine several times and waited between 4 and 6 hours each time.

I was kept in on the final occasion for a week, during which time my operation was cancelled, due to a mistake. When I was admitted finally, the records on my ward were mixed up, no patient having their own records on their beds and stats being entered in the wrong files.

During one night a patient on my ward was crying, because she was senile and frightened. The agency nurse just shouted at her that she was keeping other patients awake, which was untrue: it was the nurse who woke us.

Luckily my records were lost again as I was being wheeled down to theatre, so I had the opportunity to check that they remembered which operation they were to do.

The rooms that I saw were filthy and the food that I had was unpleasant and sometimes given to the wrong patients.