"Excellent care"

My mum had a partial nephrectomy recently at the Western General Hospital. She was admitted through DOSA and she said that the staff there were lovely. She was taken to theatre at around 2:30pm and she told me how brilliant the theatre staff were as she was very anxious and they put her at ease. The anaesthetist was great and she felt that she listened to her concerns and arranged a plan of how to manage her pain and nausea post op. The consultant Dr Laird and his colleague have been brilliant and explained everything to us and had called my dad with an update after the surgery was over to let us know how it went.

My mum was transferred to ward 53 post op. We were able to see her after the surgery for an hour and staff were very attentive checking on her regularly and doing her observations. Each member of staff was so helpful and spent time chatting to my mum and I. I was working on the Friday morning in the hospital and when I was on break I went to the ward and the nurses said it was ok to go in and see my mum which helped put me at ease as I had been worrying about her. She told me that she had been vomiting overnight and the nurse Sarah was so kind and helped her get cleaned up and changed the bed sheets. She felt very well cared for and looked after by staff nurses Johnsy and Sarah who were on the night shift. The nurse looking after her on the Friday was called Barry and he was great. He gave me an update on what the plan was as the doctors had been to see my mum on the ward round and he told me the aim was to get mum home later that day.

When the PCA had come down and she was switched to oral medication when she pressed the buzzer and asked for pain relief she was given some straight away. She had her catheter removed and the staff nurse Louise had came to scan her bladder and explained each step of the process and let us know that she had passed her TWOC which we were happy about as she was able to go home. 

We also met Clinical Nurse Specialist Louise who came to see my mum just before she was discharged to check how she was doing and give advice on recovery and a booklet which answers questions about practical things like driving and things to avoid such as heavy lifting. When the doctors were happy for her to go home one of the staff nurses (I can’t remember her name) came into the room and explained to myself and my mum about medication that had been prescribed alongside her discharge letter.

We really do appreciate all the care and support and the staff really did make this admission that bit easier.