"Full of Life in DTC"

I'm a returning patient to this hospital who has had dental difficulties for some time.

Partly due to incorrect handling of my situation and because I've been in frequent pain for some time. I'm more than familiar with the hospital as it used to be my local many years ago and the environment makes a first impression on anyone who enters a building.

I would like to outline briefly, that I was satisfied on both occasions with the output of my regular surgeon and who is a familiar face on the wards. His team however, leave much to be desired in treating patients in the week mainly.

The DTC has many patients requiring many different procedures, and dental patients are usually day cases, so naturally, we won't take up all the beds for too long but due to lack of staff, had to wait almost four hours for an anaesthetist. Yet again, I had to ask numerous times for a sedative, and got cream splayed over my pulses, which I didn't ask for. No sedative. What use is a pre-op for an hour if this doesn't get re-iterated in the right direction?

The walk into theatre was quite long, considering the time before I was wheeled into a room to be put to sleep. It was like walking into a coma delaying the time further.

This process of being informally introduced to the team, and told to lay down, then get mocked into sleep, was not what I would have imagined and my last images were not pleasant. I'd mentioned my needle phobia. I wasn't talked through it and would have liked someone with more patience, but the accent wasn't good either, so I didn't complain.

I woke up to someone who told me I'd awoken in the recovery room, and got wheeled back to the ward. My arm was throbbing, the canula was killing me and no one noticed, all but one out of roughly nine members of staff. I was grateful to him, for removing it, his superior was not too happy and was rude.

The staff said I must be kept there for two hours, I was ready before that and had enough of the mocking being made of patients whilst in beds. People do look indifferent after an operation, though I wouldn't have said it out loud.

Some of the regular staff are being burdened by ill trained under qualified members, and its only now I realise how appalling the conditions for a group briefing are for the surgeons who are doing all the work. I feel sorry for my surgeon now, and feel he has done his best in keeping the ward up and running. Otherwise, many people would have to look elsewhere.