"Stay at The Sydney Private Hospital was a total nightmare, whilst St Luke's Hospital is wonderful."

A few months ago I had had an operation at St Luke's Hospital, and my stay in this hospital was absolutely wonderful. Could not fault the care I received. But something went wrong and I had to be re-operated on. Unfortunately St Luke's did not have any operating space so I went to The Sydney Private Hospital at Ashfield. It was a total nightmare!

First of all after the operation, it seemed to me that they wanted to clear the ward. It appeared to me that the head nurse of the surgical ward I was in, just kept trying to get me transferred, and I felt that she was very rude. The nurse attending me, at one point actually said that they shouldn't discuss it in front of me. Eventually they were able to move me, and that was a horrible experience. As I was moved downstairs, they got my cannula caught on the edge of the bed. Then when they went to move me into my room, the bed could not fit through the door. Keeping in mind I had just had surgery the day before, it seemed that they thought the best way to move me was to just use the surgical sheet - done in the hallway at the nurses station - into my room! Did not even use a spinal board. Earlier this year I had had my lymph nodes removed and was under strict instructions not to use that arm, and the arm was label not to put a cannula in it. So I expected the nurse to know this, but she appeared to be quite rude to me because I couldn't grasp the handle to pull myself up the bed. My husband, normally a very relaxed person, was furious and said to another nurse to get rid of the rude nurse. It didn't end there.

The room I had been moved to was not ready for me. My husband leaned on the table and found it sticky, and had to ask to have it cleaned. The bathroom was dirty, there was a half glass of water and the bin was overflowing with rubbish. Then, when the nurse left, she closed the door and three screws from the top hinge came out, so they thought it best if they leave the door open. The cleaner did not know this, so she closed the door and three screws from the middle hinge fell out. This meant that the door was being supported by the three screws on the bottom hinge. Given the size of the room, if it had fallen it would have landed on me. When the Physio came in she was horrified and demanded that it be fixed, however, the screws wouldn’t stay in, so she had me moved to another room upstairs.

My husband had ordered me a baked dinner for that night. When it came it consisted of a tiny piece of pork, with gravy, no vegetables or anything else. When they came to collect the plates, I asked the orderly if they had run out of vegetables and he, with what seemed like attitude plus, responded that no, they had probably just forgotten, would I like him to go and get some!

As soon as I could, I had myself transferred back to St Luke’s for my rehabilitation there. I cannot fault St Luke's Hospital.

I know it was Easter, but still, staying at The Sydney Private was a nightmare.