Preparing for your hospital visit: What you need to know

On admission, please bring a current prescription and all current medications, in their boxes if possible. Use the green bag provided at one of your pre-assessment appointments.

Please note – simple painkillers, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, and laxatives, such as senna and lactulose, may be required after surgery. We suggest you discuss this with your local pharmacist and recommend having a supply of these medications at home to aid your recovery.

Please bring a small overnight bag containing your own washing items, day clothes, nightwear, dressing gown, and comfortable indoor shoes/slippers. You may wish to bring a small amount of money with you to purchase magazines, newspapers, or a television card, etc.

There may be times when you will be waiting. You may have to wait before having surgery, and depending on the procedure you have, there may be a period of recovery and rest. We therefore recommend bringing items to help keep you occupied. You may bring a book, magazine, music player, crossword, or even knitting, for example.

On most occasions, you will be able to use electronic devices (music players, smartphones, tablets, etc.). Headphones must be used at all times, and volumes should be kept to a reasonable level. Please be mindful of those around you. You may be asked by a member of staff to stop using an electronic device at times, such as during ward rounds, meal times, or if it could affect hospital equipment. If this happens, the staff member will explain why.

We ask that you be considerate of other patients and the staff’s responsibility for providing care. You are permitted to use a mobile phone in most hospital areas and on the ward. However, you may be asked to stop using your phone by staff in certain situations, and we ask that you respect this request if it is made.

Please note that you are responsible for the security of all the belongings you bring with you.

If you have been given specific fasting advice, please follow it. If not, stop eating and drinking (including chewing gum) five hours before your admission. You can continue to drink clear fluids until one hour before your admission.

For example, an admission at 07:00 would require you to stop eating at 02:00 and then drink clear fluids (for example, water, black tea, or black coffee) only until 06:00.

If advised by the pre-operative assessment nurse, please take the complex carbohydrate drinks (‘Nutricia Pre-op’) as directed:

• 4 drinks – throughout the evening before admission
• 2 drinks – the morning of admission (to finish one hour before admission as per instructions for clear fluids)

Your anaesthetist will give instructions to the nursing team looking after you on admission, as you may be allowed to drink clear fluids until later in the day, depending on the timing of your operation.

Sometimes certain medicines need to be stopped before surgery, for example, blood-thinning ones. You should have been given instructions at your pre-assessment appointment about any medication you should stop prior to your admission and at what point you should stop them.

It is important that you continue all your other medicines (tablets, liquids, inhalers, patches, creams, etc.) as normal. On the morning of your admission, you can take your tablets with up to 200mls of water as long as this is done by 06:00.

If you are at all unclear about the advice you were given about your medication, please call the Pre-Assessment Department on 01223 250888.

Please remember to bring all your medication with you to hospital, including any medicines that you have been asked to stop before surgery. This includes any herbal remedies or alternative medicines that you are taking.

Any medicine that you stop before surgery will be reviewed by the doctor before you are sent home and re-started after your treatment, if it is safe to do so. Please make sure that you know exactly which medicines, including herbal remedies or alternative medicines, you should be taking before you are discharged home. On discharge from the ward, you will be given a list of the medicines you should be taking at home, and a copy will be sent to your GP.

The arrival time for your admission is on your admission letter. For the majority of admissions, the arrival time will be early in the morning, even though you may not have your treatment until later in the day. The reason for early admissions is to allow the clinical team to fully prepare you for your treatment.

Admission times are usually 07:00 for morning procedures and 11:00 or 12:30 for afternoon procedures – this will be specified in your admission letter.

If you have to change, cancel, or postpone your admission, it is important that you contact the booking department specific for your procedure. Their number is on your admission letter.

If you are travelling a long distance, you may wish to stay in a local hotel. Any arrangement with a hotel is your responsibility and is not part of your NHS service.

Visit Cambridge provides resources to help you find accommodation. (opens in a new tab)

Our site is one of the largest in the UK and we want to help you get to where you are going quicker.

Transport to and from hospital

Please be aware that the hospital cannot pre-book hospital transport for any surgical admission. This needs to be arranged through your GP.

Please make arrangements, wherever possible, for transport home post-operatively. If, because of a medical condition, you require ambulance transport to take you home, the ward team will arrange this.

Visit our travel and parking pages for more information.

If you need a foreign language or sign language interpreter, please tell your GP. They will advise us when they refer you to our services, and we will organise one for you.

Visit our how would you like us to communicate with you pages for further details.