"Lost belongings and indifferent staff"

My elderly parent was unexpectedly hospitalised recently.

They were originally in a public hospital who, while were doing their best in a very hectic overworked system were hard to get to co- ordinate medical specialists and opinions consistently.

I appreciated what I believe to be the fact that these circumstances have become a hallmark of the post Covid under funded machine our health care has become ...but the bouncy ball of trying to get best care outcome and fielding calls (mostly which it seemed were returned in the 10/15 minutes I decided to use the bathroom or attend another errand) then try and call back were exercises in futility!

My parent's hearing aid managed to be ‘lost’ in this environment and was never found or given any reimbursement for.... but that experience paled in comparison to ‘missing clothing items’ when my parent had been transferred to a Private hospital Beleura Hill in Victoria.

My parent had been undergoing radiotherapy and as result was quite prone to post treatment drooling....I had purchased them several adult high quality snap closure terry cloth bib/napkins.

These items were consistently laundered by me and were with my parent in a bedside draw for their entire hospitization from the public hospital onwards.

Not once had any gone missing...till about 4 days prior to my parent being moved on to a Temporary Care Program....when I asked the ward nurse they seemed oblivious to where they might have gone except I recall, they may have got mixed in with hospital linen, really! They hadn't gone anywhere prior and they were colors that would stand out from basic white linen.

My parent was left with one navy blue bib which it was suggested I take home as they had bibs they could provide.

I'm sure they do but they are smaller and require to be pulled over the head and as my parent was being treated for neck cancer I thought it best not to aggravate treatment site with pulling and pushing a bib over their head.

While there were some extremely wonderful and compassionate nurses, allied health and catering staff during my parent’s stay...there was a main team of nurses who I felt consistently had an attitude that this type of care was not in their job description and it seemed basically had a condescending/snide eye rolling attitude to my parent’s care needs and our base concerns.

Based on my experience I am exceptionally appalled and amazed that this is Private care in 2023.