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Cancelled operation

Posted By stressedoutdaughter

"Cancelled operation"

About: Good Hope Hospital / Trauma & orthopaedics

(as a relative),

Firstly I took my 78 year old Dad in the morning to Good Hope for a planned knee operation.

We followed the instructions on the letter he had received only to find that the Surgical admittance had been moved. No-one had bothered to call my Dad to let him know whereas some of the other patients had been contacted by Good Hope on the previous day. This caused my Dad unecessary pain (hence his planned operation) as he can not walk far and we had to move from one location to the other. What happened to communication?

On arriving in the right place quite frankly the room looked like a junk shop, old broken chairs, no lights on and litter on the floor. I reluctantly left my Dad with the lovely receptionist.

At around 12. 30pm after sitting there in a gown, knee marked and having been spoken to by the Anesthetists my Dad was informed by a member of staff that his operation had been cancelled. By this time he had not eaten or drank anything for hours and was extremely worked up and stressed. Is this really the way we treat Humans, where is the compassion?

This experience has been made worse that recently my Dad has been diagnosed with a deteriorating neurological condition and has been advised by 2 Neurologists to have his knee operation sooner rather than later! ! !

All this is documented in his medical notes. IS THIS WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT FROM GOOD HOPE & THE NHS? ? ? ?

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Responses

Response from Richard Parker, Managing Director, Good Hope Hospital, Heart Of England NHS Foundation Trust 9 years ago
Richard Parker
Managing Director, Good Hope Hospital,
Heart Of England NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 28/01/2015 at 12:13
Published on Care Opinion at 13:05

picture of Richard Parker

I'm sorry to read of you & your Dad's experience yesterday at Good Hope. Unfortunately, after reviewing our planned surgery on Monday (for Tuesday), we had an influx of emergency medical patients requiring admission.

We started the day yesterday with more patients in the Emergency Department than we had beds for and so unfortunately had to cancel patients we initially had expected to be able to operate on.

Please accept my sincere apologies & I'll make sure the team responsible for rescheduling patients are in touch later today with an alternative date for your Dad.

If you do have any further problems please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards

Richard

richard.parker@heartofengland.nhs.uk

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by stressedoutdaughter (a relative)

Thank you for your response. However if you knew the emergency dept was full to capacity why did it take 5 hours plus to actually tell him that his operation was cancelled? Why allow him to be Prep'd ready for the operation knowing that the bed situation was stretched to the limit?

My concern is obviously for my parents as they are elderly and very anxious. All this said, I obviously appreciate any help you may be able to give us.

Thanks once again.

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