"Nothing - I received a telephone ..."

What I liked

Nothing - I received a telephone call Friday afternoon, 20 Feb, to advise they had a cancellation in the Day Care Centre for Monday, 23 Feb, at 7.30am, to have my caudal epidural injection under a local anaesthetic.

When I checked in the Reception advised that the local anaesthetics are normally done first and that I should prepare myself to be there until about lunch-time. That was fine - but hours later, after sitting in a reclining chair until 3.30pm, I was still waiting. The nurses - well to be fair - the one looking after me - did ask if I wanted a drink or some toast - other patients with whom I chatted to had had no breakfast, because no one told them what they needed to bring or do - an old guy next to me had not even been told to bring a dressing gown or slippers - he just bought himself. I was told that the general anaesthetic operations had gone first and we would be "fitted in". I was told to get changed on the ward about 2.30 and I then sat another hour before I was taken to theatre. The actual procedure did not take more than 5 minutes tops - by the time I was taken back to the ward and rested to see if I was OK, I finally left the hospital at 5.00pm - a total of nearly 10 hours later - what about that for efficiency!!

The nurse that looked after me was brilliant - but cannot say so much about the ones looking after the lady and the old guy next to me - they were virtually left sitting all day.

What could be improved

For a procedure such as this, which, as stated above, only takes a few minutes, could there not be a small theatre provided for these. I did not envisage being there a whole day and ended up losing half a day from work. Surely, there could be some kind of system whereby you can give somone having this sort of procedure a proper timed appointment, and not be kept waiting for nearly 10 hours. I went home, absolutely starving hungry, and really angry.

Anything else?

Please sort our your appointments to keep waiting times down to a minimum and try and think about the patients sat waiting - especially ones like the old guy next to me - if I had not asked for a drink and a slice of toast for him from the nurse looking after me, he would not have been given anything.