"Terrible nurse care at the BMI Churchill."

I attended the BMI Churchill as a day patient for a minor surgical procedure. I had originally been due to attend in the afternoon. I was contacted two days prior and asked if I would mind attending in the morning instead, because I was currently the only patient on the list in the afternoon and this would allow them to avoid having to pay the anaesthetist (actual reason given). I somewhat reluctantly agreed, as it meant rearranging my work schedule to accommodate. By way of incentive, they informed me that if I turned up by 7.15 am, they would put me first on the list. I turned up at 7am. I was then shown to my room, where I was kept waiting for *seven hours* (until 2pm) before my procedure. During this time I was, of course, not allowed to eat or drink as I was nil-by-mouth due to the operation being performed under a general anaesthetic. I was the last patient to be operated on for the day's list, not the first. Had someone said "I'm sorry there's a delay, you'll be seen in four hours" I wouldn't have been pleased, but I would at least have been informed. But no - instead, there was very little effort made to find out when my procedure would be undertaken (despite asking more than once), and the nursing staff seemed to feel that this state of affairs was acceptable. My room overlooked the car park and was particularly warm with the sun shining on to the windows all morning. I was extremely dehydrated after 7 hours without fluids. Nothing was done to prevent or mitigate this. Overall I found the nursing staff to be a) lacking in empathy, b) indifferent, c) careless, d) lacking in communication skills with poor English. One nurse who, sadly, was a student nurse only temporarily there, showed more empathy in all her dealings with me than the rest of her colleagues put together. An example of this is where she was assisting a more senior nurse in changing my dressings. The more senior nurse was most interested in changing the dressing in the minimum amount of time and with the minimum amount of effort. The student nurse was most interested in changing the dressing while causing the minimum amount of pain. The two approaches were markedly different. A similar minor illustration came when she wished to remove the cannula from my hand. The senior nurse was all for ripping off the sticking label (and all of the hair on my hand with it); The student nurse was quite happy for me to peel the label off my hand with significantly less discomfort. While simple examples, these were indicative of the general attitattitude of the nurses. Most of the nurses knocked before entering the room (there is no lock on the door). Some didn't feel a need to bother. One entered the room while I was in the bathroom, and continued to do her paperwork in my room while she waited for me to emerge. The door was frequently left open after they had entered, so that anyone walking past could easily see in. Food was simplistic and poor.