"My experience of ward A301 as a day patient"

Not the experience I was expecting or wish to repeat.

I came into Broomfield hospital to have a kidney cyst drained. A procedure that did not go according to plan and caused me at the time extreme pain resulting in the procedure having to be halted. I have my own theory about what happened but will not go into it on here.

Personally I feel this procedure should be carried out under a general anaesthetic, or at least the patient should be given the choice. I would have also expected it to be carried out in a more sterile environment rather than a small ultra sound unit that that is used mainly for outpatients and has no more room than a large broom cupboard. I'm surprised the QCC allow it.

I was on day ward A301 and found the staff to be excellent. However, on arrival to the department I was surprised at not having a bed allocated for my day stay. This was the same for everyone. You waited in a large open area for what could be several hours in your hospital attire sitting in arm chairs until your time came for your operation/procedure where you got on the trolley and off you went. Reminded of a factory conveyor belt system. These trolleys are not them most comfortable of apparatuses and certainly not what you expect to be left to recover on. But this is what was happening. Patients, me included were returning to the ward on the trolley you went down on and put into curtained cubicles to recover. How much nicer and comfortable it would have been for the patient to be in a bed to recover rather than a trolley.

Food. What food? It was 20 hrs before I had some food and drink. OK, to be fair a few hours of that were due to staff not knowing if I needed further treatment for the pain I was in. Eventually, like everyone I was offered tea, toast and jams, thin white bread that had all the nutrition of a cobweb. Now I'm not looking for gourmet food and silver service, but come on, is this the best you can offer patients who have had to be starved for the best part of a day? A vast contrast to the other day stay ward I was on six months earlier at Broomfield. A bedded ward, a dedicated catering lady who offered a choice of food menu. A completely different experience.