"st Albans Hospital"

Anything else?

Operation was fine and successful but disatisfied with cleanliness and nursing care. They forgot to turn on the drip after the operation, so I got rather dehydrated (it was a hot day but they completely failed to notice that the fluid level wasn't decreasing!). There was no hourly check as should be the standard, e.g. they took 3 hours to notice that an elderly patient hadn't taken the pills left beside her.

Bathrooms lacked containers for sanitary towels and blood on the floor was not wiped up for most of the day. Toast handed round the ward by someone using his bare hands - that he also used for pushing the trolley and touching door handles!

My drug chart was at the pharmacy for 4 hours and during that time I could not be given any pain relief - surely there must be a better system! However when leaving the nurse gave me sufficient drugs and a sick leave form to cover all the recovery time, so I did not need to go to the GP - I thought a helpful and time-saving thing to do.

There is very poor communication with the relatives expected to come and fetch the patients - one has to keep phoning to try and catch a nurse; the reception often loses track of where patients have been put. Couldn't there be some designated liaison person? Some people don't have cars and have to book taxis or take public transport - it's very difficult for them trying to find out whether to come in that day/evening or not.