"Patient Feedback BMI The London Independent..."

Having attended outpatients on three occasions at The London Independent Hospital, I was expecting a good service when I was admitted as a day case for minor surgery, accompanied by my wife. I had previously agreed to have local, rather than general anaesthetic. After fasting from 6:30am and stopping fluids at 11am I arrived at the Hospital. The admission began well with visits from a student nurse, physiotherapist, anaesthetist and surgeon (although I was surprised that the pre-anaesthetic assessment did not include any physical examination). I emphasized to the anaesthetist and surgeon that I had requested a local anaesthetic.

The organisation of the ward left much to be desired. The long wait was punctuated by visits from a porter who looked and my wrist band and said they had ‘come for the wrong man’, and two porters and the sister in charge, all of whom insisted that I was having a general anaesthetic in spite of previous insistence on local anaesthetic in outpatients and the ward.

I asked when my operation would be at 3:15 to be told it would be at 3:30pm. I was offered a drink of water at 4pm, and at 5pm I was told that there were still three cases before me. My wife, who had taken a day off work, was also concerned that she could have come to escort me home in the evening, rather than sit around for the whole day. We suspected that I would be cancelled (as had happened to 5 patients on the previous Friday). We were also concerned about having an operation when the surgeon had been operating all day. I therefore discharged myself.

I think that the surgical lists could be better managed by phased admission of patients.