
The hospital was very clean, staff were very friendly and helpful. The procedure staff were particularly nice and professional. I was very happy with the procedure and the level of professionalism and also good bedside manner.
One/two areas which could be improved if you are interested :
1. Pre-procedure information suggested an overall time from entry to release of approx 2hrs. With a 6pm admission time, I assumed I could arrange a collection for 8.30pm with some time to spare. However, on arrival, after approx 1hr 15mins it became apparent that the admission time of 6pm was a general time for 3 patients to be admitted and seen that evening between 6-9pm. I happened to be patient no.2, so was seen around 7.30 and released around 9, meaning I could not use the lift arranged (my wife &kids were ok til then, but not after). This then presented me with a choice of either taxi home or to ask someone at short notice to come and collect me. Had I known the range of procedure/release times in advance, I would have arranged a different, more appropriate, lift from the start. This leads to point no.2
2. I was not made aware of the choice on whether to have sedative or not. The literature states "you will be given a sedative" not that you have a choice. After the delay above, this then created a difficulty whereby if I took the sedative, I could not legally be released to an unknown taxi driver and would have to arrange another lift at short notice or not take the sedative. I opted to not take the sedative. Had I known this option was there, I could have driven myself to and from the appointment. It also would have saved my wife and kids spending time in the car on a busy evening. In connection with this, during the appointment, it sounded like release/recovery after the sedative was likely to be several hours, so release before 10-11pm was unlikely from the start and it was always probably going to be later if I took the sedative.
Please don't take the above as criticism, just highlighting that making the choice on sedative clear would have allowed me to more easily plan both my transport. Also providing a bit more detail on the admission/procedure time range and release time range would have allowed me to more easily arrange appropriate transport. Basically, more information would have made things a bit easier is all