"Service was great, once it was eventually received..."

What I liked

Once I made it into a hospital bed on the ward, the doctors, nurses and surgical team were all very friendly, helpful and polite. I was kept informed of what was going on, and discharge was quick and efficient.

What could be improved

Having been telephoned at 10.30am to be told a bed was ready for me, I made my way directly to the ward where I had to wait over 3 hours sitting in their waiting/photocopying room. It was made clear from the outset that I needed to be in and out of the hospital as quickly as possible as I was breastfeeding my 7 week old baby, so it was incredibly frustrating to be left waiting for so long.

Communication was poor - I'd been under the impression I could have a side room to take my child in with me to hospital, only to find out the morning of my operation that this was not the case. I didn't have suficient notice to express milk to continue breastfeeding, so my child had to be given formula. As an organisation that encourages breastfeeding, very little was done to accomodate this.

While I was waiting to be given a bed, I was given misleading information: phrases suchs as 'soon', 'I don't think it'll be long now,' and 'you'll be the next or next but one patient.' This made the long wait all the more frustrating, and although an apology was made to me for waiting so long, it was uttered as a stock phrase and did not sound sincere.