Gateway Surgical Centre 2022-03-18 Person 1 5 0

Absolutely terrible experience. My husband and I arrived at 6:35am for his hand fracture surgery (after a long 2 year wait due to pandemic). It was booked in for 7:00am and as advised on the letter, my husband fasted from 2am. Upon arrival when my husband checked in, I was immediately told there were no visitors allowed and given a card to call the ward, so I could not even wait. However, I was then told by the same lady I can wait in the café of the building where the outpatient department was. After about an hour my husband texted me to say that a nurse thinks I should go home as it will be a couple of hours wait. I proceeded to go home and then my husband told me a nurse advised that I should come back to collect him after surgery. By this point I was half way home and I was annoyed as I could have just carried on waiting (had it been a couple more hours wait). I then called the maple ward at 11am and was told there are 2 people ahead of my husband (3 in total) and one of them had just gone in for surgery. When I asked why my husband had to come for 7am they said that the surgeon likes to see everyone before they start (still don't understand why it has to be so early). By 3pm in the afternoon my husband had still not been told when he will be going for surgery so he was waiting for 9 hours without being given any updates! The fact that he had been fasting since 2am and not allowed any water from 6am was not taken into account. He has fasted for long periods of time many times before but that's besides the point, when it comes to medical procedures you would expect common courtesy from staff to let their patients know the waiting expectations and not leave them hanging. He did not bring his phone charger as he didn't know it would be that long of a wait. So I headed back to bring his charger and a book as his phone was dying and he had no idea when he would be called in. On the way back to the hospital he informed me he was just being taken into surgery around 3:20pm. I arrived by 3:40pm and went into the café to wait as I had done so in the morning. I was stopped by the lady at the security desk immediately who was utterly rude to me asking why I was here. I told her and she started saying there are no visitors allowed and told me to go home again and tell my husband to take a taxi home!! I explained to her that I was specifically instructed by a nurse to come and collect my husband after surgery. She told me that I would be waiting more than 2 hours again as the post surgery procedure takes very long. I am 7.5 months pregnant and cannot keep going back and forth (which I told her) not to mention the waste of travel money involved. She then told me to go to speak to maple ward so I did and they said to me that I can wait in the café if I want to but the reason visitors aren't allowed is due to covid restrictions and not wanting to put staff and patients at risk. I was told that I can come back to maple ward in an hours time to see if my husband is out of surgery. I understand the covid policy but there were only 2 people in the whole café and plenty of space to keep more than a 2 metre distance from table to table. I could wait outside but it was very windy and uncomfortable on a wooden bench for a heavily pregnant person. There was absolutely no need for the lady in the outpatient entrance to be so rude to me. Unfortunately I did not get her name as I couldn't see a name tag. I went back to the café. The security lady continued to tell me in a rude manner that the café was not a waiting area despite me saying I was told I could wait here if I wanted. She said I had to go to "zone 5" if I wanted to wait and I could only wait in the café if I had a cup of tea but I would have to leave straight after. I had already got a drink and chocolate bar from the vending machine which she reluctantly let me do when I first spoke to her on my arrival (she almost kicked me out straight away!) When I asked where zone 5 was she didn't answer me, and then said I can wait there if I wanted but they close at 5pm, to which I said this was fine since it would be well over an hour by then. The stress of waiting to hear about my husband's surgery was already bad enough, I did not need this treatment on top of it, especially me being pregnant and needing to wait in a comfortable environment with access to a toilet nearby. As I got up to leave an hour later, the security lady came up to me to ask if my husband was out of surgery or "is he done?" as she put it bluntly. I replied that I'm going to find out. She said why don't I call his mobile to which I said he won't be able to answer if he's just come out of surgery (she said herself earlier that it takes a while for the anaesthetic to wear off). She told me that they won't let me in (the maple ward). Her tone was utterly disrespectful. I went over to call the maple ward intercom but no one answered. However someone opened the door and I found a chair to sit down on beside the staircase. I then telephoned the ward several times but their line was busy so I continued to wait. Whilst waiting, a delivery man with a roll of vinyl he was trying to wheel in came to the door and asked me to hold the door open for him. Had I not been there he wouldn't have been able to make his delivery. I'm sure that delivery was important to the hospital. But back to the serious situation, this was honestly one of the worst NHS experiences I've ever personally encountered. I do NOT recommend this place if you or your family member can be referred elsewhere. Finally got through on the phone to the ward at 5:10pm and was told my husband is still in theatre and will be out in about half an hour. Called again in half an hour to be told he was still upstairs (not sure if that meant still in surgery or on a higher floor to the surgical theatre) and once he is back they will ask him to give me a call. After 6:15pm I went back inside the outpatient department through the doors to the left of me so I could use the toilet. I discovered the café department was not closed off to anyone, so in actual fact the security lady was lying to me. The café counter itself was closed but I did not see anyone telling me I could not wait in this area and there was a man at the reception desk still. I was able to sit on a comfortable chair whilst I waited even longer. I tried calling the ward again a few times at 7pm for an update and there was no answer. Got through at 7:08 to be told to call back in 10 mins as they were doing the handover. Then finally the surgeon came down to update me and tell me they want to monitor my husband overnight due to a small issue but the surgery itself went well and just apologised for me waiting all those hours. He told me that even if my husband was able to go home he would still have to be monitored for a further 3 hours, meaning I would still be waiting till after 10pm. The surgeon was pleasant to speak to but his apology was not enough for the stress I had to endure. I had no choice but to go home and wait for their update in the morning. Thankfully the surgeon took the charger and book for my husband. Firstly, no one should have to wait for more than 9 hours for surgery whilst fasting! There was no mention of the expected wait times and time frame for the whole procedure and potential overnight stay on the intiial letter. There was also no mention of not being allowed to have someone accompany you or the "no visitors allowed" policy. If there was, this whole situation could have been a lot better (as I would not have had to go back and forth to the hospital; saving time, energy, money and stress) and I would not have encountered such a horrible experience with the waiting and rude staff member. Secondly I should not have had to wait all those hours with no updates and having to keep calling myself to find out what was going on (they had my number). On a plus side, my husband told me that the nurses and ward staff are very nice and I briefly spoke to a nurse on video chat whilst she was giving my husband a hot meal and she was very friendly. However, he was also baffled as to why he had to come in at 7am when the hospital knew that surgery wouldn't happen straight away and there were other people in front of him (despite all having different surgeons). He told me all that happend was his blood pressure was taken and he had to sign a waiver form. Overall, as a result of the poor management, lack of communication and rude staff attitude (mainly that one security lady in the outpatient / café area), the impression I have of this particular department of Newham Hospital is extremely poor. I can't speak for the rest of the hospital as I've never had to visit it before.