Hospital day surgery staff rant.

Third Opinion

Third Opinion

Third Opinion

Soldato
Joined
3 Jun 2005
Posts
5,365
Location
West Sussex
Sorry I have to vent.

This week I have had to take 2 people to day surgery for operations, my neighbour and my step father.

My neighbour was yesterday and they asked her to go in at 10.30 in the morning. They gave no indication of time she might come out so I asked if there was any approximation. I was told it would take 'a while', I politely asked if it is likely to be more than 3 hours as the distance I have to travel would only make it worth going home if it was longer than that.

The nurse suddenly glared at me and told me abruptly 'I said awhile, ok!!'. Obviously it left me none the wiser. All in all I spent up till 6pm sitting in my car and hanging around shops etc. I got a text from my neighbour saying they were getting shirty with her as she had been ready for 30mins, yet nobody called me. When I got there to pick her up there was a whole mob of people trying to collect people, nobody had been called as promised.

Today I dropped my step father off at 11:30 different hospital. As it is an hour and a half drive I just called them. After 15 minutes on hold I get another shirty nurse saying he has not been taken for surgery and I should not phone back as it will take as long as it takes and he can call me when he is ready from his mobile.

That means he will have to wait an extra hour and a half for me to get there once he has been discharged. Neither hospitals allow you to wait with them so thats no an option and the parking is like £2 an hour now.

I know they are busy but I just cannot stand the rudeness, not that I would but if you said anything to them they fall back on the NHS abuse policy.

So fed up with it all.
 
I have some sympathy with the OP, if this wasn't an NHS hospital, or if it was a well run NHS hospital, the staff would be able to inform people of the usual times for the various procedures, and when the patients would be likely available to be collected.
It isn't rocket science, they often do the same procedures o the same days each week. The timings are often the same, it isn't emergency surgery where things can be much more random.
A correctly run hospital, would have literature for their patients, or a verbal piece of information giving an idea of when things might be completed. Now everywhere has issues, bad days, or unexpected events, but people tend to be less annoyed when things are explained to them.

Additionally if people were told they would be informed when patients have completed their treatment, and then are not informed, that is a major failing on the hospitals side.

-edit any reasonably run private business would be able to give a rough idea of such information, a hospital should be no different tin this regard, it might be NHS, but everyone of them has income and expenditure now, they are basically businesses.
 
OP, ring their complaints department and if it was our Trust they take it very seriously, I know because I work next to them.
Sometimes an hospital can only improve by people rightfully complaining.
 
OP if it is as described then you should forward a complaint if you feel it is warranted. If you are reluctant about that but nevertheless want to address the situation then I would advise you to go their PALS (Patient Advocacy Liaison Service - something along those lines). They can highlight the issue without making it a formal complaint ie instigate a quiet word in the appropriate person's ear.
 
Aye, a quiet kick up the arse, to either the single lazy member of staff, or the dept. being asked quietly to get its act together and get bothered with doing their jobs.
Everyone can have a bad day, but systemic endemic poor scheduling and poor communication is the simplest thing to address.

I like to run on time, when I book people in, I give them the time I think they will need, from my experience I am on time for around 98% of the time (within 4-5 minutes of scheduled appointments. When I am not I apologise directly to the patient concerned. When I am running very much being 15-20 or more, I will make sure the patient is told this upon their arrival, and the reasons why (usually emergency unscheduled events, or unforeseen complications). If they are happy to wait fine, if not we'll rebook to suit them.

Now a hospital department can't run this way, or is at least unlikely to do so, but the simple means of communication is usually enough to prevent complaints.
 
hurfdurf said:
Medical services should not be for profit above the needs of citizens, what a disgusting attitude to have.
Click to expand...

Rubbish, if NHS workers weren't such lazy good-for-nothings then private wouldn't exist. I wish i had the money for my gf to go private last year. But instead she was in the hands of incompetent ******** in Birmingham Hospital, then they covered there own asses when i kicked up a fuss. That's whats disgusting
 
Well I have just got back from the hospital. Couldn't update earlier sorry.

I got a phone call from my stepfather saying his operation was cancelled due to an administration error at 5pm. So the long and short of it is it took them till 5 pm to realize they had made an error and overbooked surgery.

Anyway the saga now goes on into tomorrow, they now have asked me to take him in at 9:30am as an emergency case and pick him up at 11:30am. He needs to go home and lie on his front as it is an eye retina problem and I need to return him at 5:30pm for it to be checked. He cannot stay there as they have not booked a bed.

I have the journey down to an hour and ten minutes with a new route so I have a lovely day on the road tomorrow with at least 2 trips in rush hour, one with somebody who has just undergone surgery.

I pointed the fact out to them but got no response.
 
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