"Lack of respect"

My son was admitted into Flinders Medical emergency one morning recently. My son had lower abdominal & testicular pain. During his stay, he had pain relief, blood and urine test. My son was later moved to a ward.

My son was seen by nurses, interns, and one doctor during his stay who I cannot recall the name of. During his stay, I told the nurses and doctor that my son was a private patient and my son was wanting to be moved to private. I was told that he can not be moved until diagnosed, which we accepted, but during this time was told he probably had appendicitis, however, at that point Flinders refused to give him any scans to determine this.

In the early afternoon of the following day, we were visited by an intern who came to check my son and again I raised the issue that if my son was staying in hospital would it be possible for him to be moved to private. The intern said that they will ask the doctor, as a doctor was soon to come. A little while later, a doctor who we had never met during our stay came in with the same intern as earlier. This doctor was to speak first. They looked at me and never have I been spoken to in what I believe was such an unprofessional, aggressive and hostile manner. Their words were that my son couldn’t go to the private hospital because the doctor looking after him doesn’t work there. This doctor's disgusting verbal behaviour towards me was witnessed by my son and the intern, which left me in total shock and stress. I then demanded an apology from the doctor. They apologised in a very hesitant manner. This caused my son & I immense stress, so my son, who is a young adult, decided to discharge himself immediately from the care of Flinders Hospital.

This is not the first time that my son has been admitted to emergency at Flinders Hospital and not been allowed to go private. I have been told since this last episode that this is apparently a recurring problem in your public sector at Flinders. Also, I do not appreciate being asked by a contracted employee at the hospital if I could stay in public being a private patient so that, from what it seems, my private health fund will donate to Flinders Public. This later complaint I have dismissed with not much stress but has made me wiser to see if this is one of the reasons, in my opinion, the hospital refuses to let go of private patients.

In closing, I expect a written apology from the doctor and the hospital. If this is not met to my satisfaction I will consider taking this further.