On the Day of the Procedure

On the day of your procedure, please take all medications unless you have been advised to stop them. If you have been asked to fast for your procedure, you can still take your medication with a small amount of water.  Please note that your appointment time is when we have asked you to arrive, and not when your procedure will be performed, you do not need to arrive any earlier than your appointment time.

Main Reception

When you arrive for your procedure, please check in at reception. The reception team will ask you to fill out an information booklet to help us with your admission. Do not worry if you can’t fill this out, the nursing team can go through this with you.

If you have brought a relative or friend with you, they can wait with you in the reception area. Once you are called through, they can either wait in reception, or they can leave the department and the nursing team can call them to come and collect you when you are ready to be discharged.

Admissions and procedure

The admission nurse will then take you into one of our admission rooms and go through some information with you, such as procedure details, your past medical history, and will take your observations such as blood pressure and heart rate. They will be able to answer any questions you have about the procedure.

Once you have been admitted you will then wait in one of our waiting rooms to be called through for your procedure. There is a call bell in the waiting room if you need assistance. We do experience delays with our procedure lists at times, but our staff will keep you updated. There is usually more than one endoscopy list running so other people may be called through before you even if they have arrived after you.

One of our staff will collect you from the waiting room when they are ready for you, they will take you into the procedure room for your endoscopy procedure. Once this is completed you will then be taken into the recovery area. The time you spend here will depend on your level of sedation and which procedure you are having done, the nursing team on the day will be able to advise you.

Discharge

Once you are ready to be discharged one of the nursing team will take you into a private room to discuss the findings of the test with you and provide you with information of what will happen next. We will be able to tell you the results of the test and what we have seen, but if we have taken any samples, the results of these will take up to three weeks to be sent to you. If you would like a relative or friend to be present for this discussion, please let us know.

You can then leave the department, please remember if you have had sedation you should have a responsible adult to escort you home and stay with you for 24 hours and you will not be able to drive for the same amount of time.