"Visit to day surgery Mottingham and Avery wards"

My husband has visited today for day surgery and he received good care throughout the whole process so thank you for that. He was really well cared for.

However, there are two areas of the process that are sadly lacking. There is no consideration whatsoever for family members who are concerned about their relatives. We were not allowed to stay and wait with him until he went to theatre despite the fact he has not had any surgery for 55 years. We were told in the information pack that there was limited room for relatives yet both Mottingham and Avery wards were deserted when we arrived and collected. There was no contact with us when he came out of surgery to let us know he was ok. I waited from 8.30am (his last contact before he went down) to 11.45am to hear from him for a surgery that should be 75 minutes. Nobody advised us when we dropped him in Mottingham ward that we would be collecting him from Avery and he did not know he was in a different ward either. We felt completely shut out of the process. This may appear to be minor surgery to you but it was not to us. A general anesthetic is always a risk and a worry. Also your processes of questioning a patient about their name, date of birth, allergies etc constantly is completely irritating. You have all this information documented but every time the patient goes to see someone, you have to go over the whole thing again. My husband was asked the same questions over and over again by the same people. It makes you look completely inconpetent and is thoroughly irritating.