Dr Peter Karpati

Dear Mr Parmar, Thank you for your feedback, which is greatly valued. As it states on the feedback card you received, your feedback is vital in enhancing our care quality and informing future patients. I am pleased that you found the outcome highly positive. With regards to your suggestions: 1. I will explore how I can highlight the summary of my credentials, beyond my current practice of giving out a feedback card at our first meeting, which allows my patients to view my CV and fellow patients' feedback on here. Time on the day is somewhat limited, and I would think focusing on your second suggestion may be time spent more valuably from the patients' perspective. 2. Our first meeting focuses on ensuring informed consent is obtained and that alone provides you with a lot of facts, information and procedural steps. However I understand, that having a more detailed overview of what happens once you are awake is also of value and will incorporate this into my practice. it is a fine balance between i) providing enough information to satisfy not only legal requirements, but more importantly the patients' needs, and ii) overwhelming them with an avalanche of data. That is why, at the end I offer all my patients the opportunity to ask questions. With regards to post-operative contact, as you yourself experienced, I hand all my private patients my direct contact details in the form of a business card "in case you wish to contact me". All patients are given contact details of the hospital on their discharge, which is the standard practice in the NHS today. I hope the above demonstrates to you that your feedback was not only read, but heard and put into practice. Please do not hesitate to contact me, should you wish as per details you have received. Best wishes, Peter Karpati

Thank you for your feedback, which is valuable in shaping how I improve / modify interactions with patients in the future and I will feed your review back to the hospital. I share your frustration with regards to the process, however this is somewhat more complex than you might expect. So please allow me to just state the facts and then I'll leave it up to you to form an opinion. When an NHS referral is received, the information received is limited. Pre-assessment at Hendon Hospital is actually at the forefront of the pack, aiming to pre-assess patients 10 working days (aka 2 weeks) prior to their procedure. Many hospitals only manage to do it as little as a few days ahead. This is when you will have the phone or face-to-face consultation with the pre-assessment nurse based on the complexity of healthcare issues involved (as far as is discernible from the available GP and / or hospital notes). This will then be flagged up to the anaesthetist, if necessary in this case me. In your case this was 10 days before your planned date of surgery. I requested more information from your cardiologist, which was emailed by pre-assessment. Unfortunately at this point, it is very much outside of our control, as each hospital and indeed department within it, has different timeframes, pressures to respond. I know that in this case phone-call follow-ups were made, but were unsuccessful in reaching the necessary Consultant, and despite highlighting the urgency of the request, pre-assessment was told they could not provide a timeframe for the response. It was only after you "got through" to PALS that those slow wheels of process, began spinning at high speed, yielding a response and enabling your surgery. One final fact: the reason for the deadline in cancelling a procedure is that hospitals need to ensure they run efficient lists, as well as getting penalised if they cancel on the day. We would much prefer to proceed with the planned patients, however there are limits to what we can achieve with "partner" hospitals. I am glad you were satisfied with my conduct throughout your stay. Wishing you all the best, Peter Karpati