"Stay in Treatment Centre"

I recently had a knee replacement op in the Treatment Centre and would like to say that in the main it was a positive experience. The surgeon, theatre staff, nursing staff and physios were excellent and the regime for recovery very good, so far. The major problem I encountered was with the pharmacy and the length of time to be discharged. From my experience of using Lister over the years this has always been the case but is now, in my opinion, an acute problem. There are not enough staff to deal with the volume of work, particularly now that the QE2 services have been transferred over and the wide area that patients are coming from. The department is not fit for purpose and is letting the hospital down. I was told on the Thursday I would be discharged on the Friday. I did not leave the centre until 4.30 pm on Friday blocking a bed all day. The patient I shared with managed to get away at 11.30 am because her paper work was signed off the previous evening. Within a short time her bed was in use by a patient who had been waiting in recover for that slot for four hours. This is a ludicrous situation. The management team need to get it sorted and spend some money in the short term on more staff in pharmacy to free beds more quickly which surely will save money in the long term. Although I think it is great having all these new swanky departments in the hospital it is no good if the less profile areas of the hospital are left struggling. We do not want style over content.