Usual for hospital to call to update you after relative’s surgery?

[JaneEyreBedHair]

Hi, is it normal/usual practice for the hospital to ring you after a relative has surgery to inform on how procedure went etc?

My mother had a planned procedure done yesterday afternoon and no-one called to say how it had gone & how she was doing. Finally got a call from the ward at 11am today to say she was with them. Now she’s needed more surgery after a complication & we’re all waiting in limbo again for an update ☹️. Is this usual practice??

Im a ward nurse and no generally we wouldn’t unless relatives make contact UNLESS they have deteriorated or something is wrong. On my ward, I can be one nurse to 14-15 patients and we get very busy with everything going on, relatives physically on the ward asking questions, medical staff, observations and tests that need doing. As well as other demands.

on my ward we have a sisters surgery where relatives can schedule slots on certain days to speak more in depth as we don’t have someone all the time to man the ward phones. Times where it’s really hard to answer the phones also is during shift change overs, meal times (as us nurses hand out meals as well as assisting with feeding) and medication rounds. If a family member had specifically asked to be rang straight away, and this has been communicated on handover, then I’d try every best effort to do this however

My mum had major surgery a few months ago and the surgeon called my dad after leaving theatre, to say everything had gone ok. He said beforehand that he would call, and he did. After that we had to call the hospital if we wanted updates while she was in recovery.

Update: thanks to everyone who gave helpful advice. My brother spoke to the surgeon at 00.40 last night & the emergency surgery was successful.

Have been in this situation and, as Next of Kin, I availed myself after the surgery to be there during one of the surgeons rounds and to speak personally, hear plans, ask questions etc with parent who had had the surgery.
You have to initiate and also make sure patient is properly informed.

The general rule is that relatives need to phone to ask however many/ most surgeons will phone relatives after planned major or emergency surgery.

Last year both me and DH had surgery. On both occasions the hospital called once we were back on the ward and they knew our status. In DH's case it was c.8 hours after his procedure as he had quite a bad reaction to the GA so they waited until that was out of his system. In my case it was about 6 hours after.

Don't know how "normal" this is but in my case the surgeon themselves made one phone call to next of kin to let them know surgery was over. No further phone calls. The day after surgery someone came to my bed and said they didn't have a next of kin phone number on record (the surgeon just wrote it on paper) so it's possible you didn't get informed due to a paperwork mixup. Or your mum may not have given permission for nok to be updated.

That’s good news OP.

My DH has had several surgeries. After the major major one the consultant called me as he had promised.

After the emergency one a couple of days later, the surgeon came to the sitting area outside the ward where we were waiting. The lovely, lovely man had somehow remembered what I looked like from one brief meeting earlier that day and immediately plastered a big smile on as he approached.

After all the others, DH texted me.

That's great news, OP 👍 Thanks for updating.

Our adult son had surgery. We are his next of kin. On the day, the surgeon called me when op was over to tell me it had gone well and that he was in recovery ward. A bit later, the anaesthetist called me from the recovery ward to say he was awake and fine. I thought this was normal.

Excellent news that it went well!

No, you need to call.