"Change of circumstances."

I came to the DOSA ward on 20/07/2017 following a request by appointments from The Royal Free as a cancellation by a patient. The procedure was I thought for the spinal stenosis which had been diagnosed in late march this year. I believed I was coming in for a spinal decompression operation, and was obviously very anxious having spent a week of sleepless nights following the acceptance of the cancellation.

However I was persuaded by the excellent consultant that this very intricate operation may not be needed at this point in time. Hopefully I have made the right decision in agreeing with them. The consultant suggested a course of spinal injections to start with. Which I enthusiastically accepted. And they were to start right away.

The treatment I had from all the nursing staff from that point onwards can be only described as superb, especially the anaesthetist. Personally, I believe excelling even private nursing care.

Negatively I feel accepting a cancellation shows how massively underfunded, overworked, and understaffed our NHS is.

I can only describe it as "the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing".

Please thank all the nursing staff on my behalf.