"Basildon day unit - Vascular surgery"

I have had 2 visits to the day unit at Basildon recently. The 1st, on the 23rd June was awful and would have got 1 star for this review. The welcome received was very hostile and homophobic, I have an anxiety disorder which was documented on my pre assessment notes and had requested my wife accompanied me into the waiting area as I had never had anything close to surgery before and found it extremely hard to deal with. The response from the matron was disgusting, looking down their nose at my wife and repeatedly questioning who she was and our relationship. They then refused to let my wife through with me, took me through to the day unit ward and asked their colleague "can you sort her out" before walking off. I was then taken to a bed and told to get changed before being left with no idea what was going on. One of the nurses was lovely and when I was wandering around trying to find what was going on and starting to have an anxiety attack they came and helped me. Recovery failed to do what they were meant to do, or so I believe as the matron was moaning about them. There was a huge lack of compassion on this day. However, I went back in for more surgery on 22nd September and have to say the experience was completely different. The matron took me through to my bed and explained everything that was happening and what the procedure was, was friendly and welcoming and put me at ease straight away. All the recovery staff were great, friendly and welcoming which is what you need after surgery and back on the ward the staff were fantastic. The nurses both went out of their way to make sure everyone was comfortable and ok, communication was good between both staff and patients and everyone worked well together. Had both experiences been like this this would be a 5 star review. On both occasions the anaesthetist, the dr and the surgeon were fantastic. It's a shame the matron let the department down so much for my first visit, but hats up to the team yesterday (22/9/2016).