"Brilliant care, shame about the delay in being discharged"

I have just returned home from bladder surgery (TURBT) at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and I can not praise the care I got too highly. My appointment was at 24 hour notice thanks to a cancellation, which I was very pleased about as It could have been another 3 weeks waiting. The staff in ward 209 and the theatre staff kept me informed and treated me excellently. Even the food was quite good ! 

The morning after my operation I was visited by the ward doctor and the surgeon who were both happy with my progress and said I was ok to be discharged once my catheter had been removed and I had passed urine three times. ( the catheter was actually removed at 9am between the ward doctor and the surgeons rounds.)

By 11 am I was cleared and the discharge letter was, according to one of the nurses, in the computer waiting to be printed and signed. It then took another 4 hours and several chase ups by the nurses to finally get discharged at 3.15 pm.

Anecdotally this is a common experience and perhaps one area where improvements in the system could be made saving patients and families hanging about the hospital and more importantly freeing up a bed sooner.

I realise that the surgeons are very busy and can get called away to emergencies but as this seems to be a common issue from other ex patients I’ve spoken to it is an area wher perhaps some small simple changes could be made to the discharge process.