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Negative experience as no beds available following...

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"Negative experience as no beds available following..."

About: University College Hospital

What I liked

The care shown by the theatre staff prior to my op was first class. Good information given at every step.

What could be improved

Following surgery and coming round in the recovery area it became evident that no beds were available for my overnight stay. The nurses kept me up to date as best they could but they had no idea when a bed would become available.After spending 3 hours in the recovery area I was wheeled back to a bay at surgical reception. This area is in effect a surgical corridor. You could hear the staff conversations about the bed situation -surgeons asking not to send any more patients through. In a nutshell chaos was erupting. This environment was definately not condusive to a positive recovery. I felt anxious and wanted to go home at the earliest opportunity.

Better planning is needed by the bed Management to ensure this doesn't happen again.

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Responses

Response from University College Hospital 11 years ago
University College Hospital

Submitted on 20/06/2012 at 10:18
Published on nhs.uk on 05/09/2012 at 21:01

Thank you for your positive feedback about the theatre staff. I am sorry however to hear of your poor experience in the recovery area last week. Unfortunately you were in an overspill area and overheard staff conversations about the bed pressures on that day. I will remind staff to be careful of this when in a patient area. Patients should be kept informed about what is happening but not exposed to the stresses of resolving the issues. We do sometimes experience difficulties when the number of admissions via accident and emergency is higher than expected and the number of beds available to patients following surgery is reduced. The trust is working on several projects looking at patient flow at the UCH site to try and prevent this from happening. I hope that despite your poor experience you are recovering well from your surgery.

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