Ernest Hooper

A PENSIONER still suffering the after-effects of anaesthetic was sent home from hospital by bus just 24 hours after an operation.

Ernest Hooper, 80, known as John, who lives with his disabled wife in Bremeridge Road, Westbury, was admitted to the Royal United Hospital in Bath on March 18 for an operation to rectify an incision hernia, which resulted from a heart operation in July.

Before the operation a surgeon and anaesthetist told Mr Hooper he would need at least two days to recover in hospital, but instead Mr Hooper said he was taken from his bed the morning after, and sent home by bus without being seen by a doctor, or given proper medical advice.

Mr Hooper said: "On the Wednesday morning a man came up with a wheelchair to say we're taking you down to the discharge area.

"I said you must be joking?' I was still drowsy from the anaesthetic and had a drainage bag attached to my stomach.

"Then a nurse came in and said what's the problem?' I started to explain and she said we need your bed'.

"So they wrapped me up in a blanket and wheeled me right through the hospital to the discharge area. I had to carry my drainage bag on my lap.

"There was no discharge procedure and I still don't know what I have to do with my dressing and stitches. I don't even know if I can shower. The only thing I received was a note for my doctor to say I had been issued with paracetemol."

Mr Hooper then had to wait hours for the RUH Hopper bus to arrive and when it did it was a one-and-a-half-hour trip home, after which he was sick. Mr Hooper also expressed concerns over hygiene.

He said: "A nurse came in to remove my discharge bag and she didn't have any gloves on and I didn't see her wash her hands."

The RUH's head of communications and external relations, Helen Robinson, said: "The Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust will investigate a patient's concerns, once those concerns have been raised with the hospital, through the proper channels.

"We do not conduct investigations into complaints which are raised through the media and because we treat patient confidentiality with the utmost importance, do not condone this approach."

Mr Hooper added: "I haven't made a complaint yet because I haven't felt up to it.

"I have complained to my GP's secretary and she said that's standard procedure there. They want to get people out as soon as possible."

3:29pm Friday 28th March 2008

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