"Long wait of 5 hrs for a procedure in day surgery"

Dear Woolie

Thank you very much for taking the time to contact us and tell us of your experience on the Albany Health Campus. We value the feedback that we receive from our community as it helps us to recognise areas for improvement or celebrate and share evidence of best practice. On this occasion you have identified an area in which we can improve.

I am very sorry that you experienced such a long delay. Whilst our day surgery lists do sometimes experience delays due to patients arriving unexpectedly requiring emergency procedures in this particular instance the visiting general surgeon was not made aware that the operating list started at 0800 hours. We recognise that this poor communication resulted in a number of our patients waiting for longer than necessary and we are very sorry for the inconvenience and discomfort this inadequate communication caused. As a result of this experience we have already improved the information provided to our visiting surgeons indicating that they must be on site at the Albany Health Campus at least thirty minutes prior to the start of their operating lists and inform us if they are unable to commence at the agreed time. In addition we stagger the arrival of our patients for their procedures in order to minimise the amount of time we keep our patients waiting in the Unit prior their surgery.

I hope that you have now fully recovered from you procedure.

With best wishes

David Naughton

Regional Director