"An experience with a surgery"

Recently, I arrived at the hospital with my elderly parent for an operation to remove cancer from their liver. We arrived around 30 minutes before the SMS that they received had asked. When we made it up to the day surgery waiting room we sat down and I tried to keep them as calm and patient as possible (which was quite a feat due to their anxiety!). We waited and finally around 3 and a half hours later, they were taken to get changed into the theatre gown. While this was happening they were told that they were not first up on the list (which every correspondence that they had had from the hospital had said) but was in fact 3rd on the list. This upset them quite a lot and I was needed to go into them in the waiting area to keep them both calm and to stop them from leaving the hospital. Every time we asked how much longer the nurses rang and asked and was told different amounts of time.

Eventually after a lot of reassurance from me and many times of stopping my parent from leaving we were told that they would go in around 7 hours after the original time (the letter from the hospital received approx. a week earlier clearly said they were an earlier time slot). My parent was getting antsy again after about 8 hours waiting and was told 30 minutes. At about 9 and a half hours late, my parent was told by the surgeons that their operation had been cancelled!

I had spent the whole day reassuring them and keeping them sitting there to wait for their operation. My parent has many health needs and this added cancer diagnosis is not something that can be cured but this operation will hopefully give them more time with their family. My parent has now got no confidence in the hospital to actually care for a patient (they haven’t had the best of experiences with the hospital in the past either) and is currently refusing to have the surgery at all which will lead to a quicker death for them.

I don't understand how a set of people and a service whose basic goal is to help people can treat people like this. I was told that they don't know how my parent misunderstood that they were first or early on the list but I have seen and have a copy of the SMS and the email that clearly says that they are an earlier timeslot and to be there at the certain time.