I am chewing a wasp!

I should be in hospital now with my operation behind me.

Wednesday 12th, the day before my operation at Hospital Particular do Algarve in Alvor, I went to the hospital again for another blood test. This time for my pre-op crossmatch in case I need a blood transfusion. Fortunately, I only had to wait for 20 minutes to book in at reception and another 15 minutes to see the nurse. After my horrendous experience on Monday, things were looking up.

The poor nurse arrived slightly flustered and immediately apologized for being late. There was a problem (again) with the computer system and the techie couldn’t seem to fix it. Blood extracted, she wished me luck with my surgery tomorrow (Thursday).

Once home, lunch in the oven we sat down to relax and enjoy a nice glass of wine and wind down before my big day tomorrow. I was still very stressed over Monday’s horrendous experience at the hospital and my anxiety levels were in overdrive.

I still had no idea of my surgery time and we kept checking the emails waiting for the hospital to contact us.

As I raised my glass I jokingly said to hubby: I bet my new knee has not arrived.

Five minutes later the hospital rang.

‘Mrs. Carole your operation tomorrow is canceled. Your knee has not arrived from the USA.’

in the blink of an eye, I went from a plate of wobbly jelly to rottweiler.

‘What you booked my operation and you did not have the knee!!’

‘It will be here on Friday, we schedule operation for next Thursday’

‘NO! you schedule the operation once you have the knee. I have been in quarantine for over two weeks, not been out …’

… and at that point I launched an attack about the managements’ inefficiency and my horrendous experience at their hospital during my pre-op appointments on Monday: no social distancing, crowded waiting areas, no sanitizing of seats, overcrowded lifts etc. etc. she got both barrels.

I know operations get canceled all the time but during the COVID-19 pandemic, you need to jump through many extra hoops in preparation. The operation was NOT canceled because of things beyond their control it was canceled because they failed to plan properly.  It’s like ordering a lorry of ready-mix concrete when you’ve not prepared the foundations.

I can’t even begin to explain the extra stress going into hospital during COVID-19 brings and if they can’t even get the basics right where else will they cut corners?

This is a private hospital and the operation will cost a lot of money. Again, I would like to reiterate I am not blaming the staff just the poor management.

I can only assume the knee did not arrive today (Friday) as expected as I’ve not heard anything from them. As our son said: Piss poor planning.

I wonder what Monday will bring … ?

Related Post:

What a JOKE! Hospital Nightmare