"Birth at the hospital"

Overall my birth and the doctors and midwives I saw were incredible, but there are some noteable negatives I believe I should share. Firstly when admitted I felt I was not listened to for the fact I wished to be admitted as a public patient not private due to wanting to go to the private hospital on joint campus, St John Of God (SJOG), for my after care. I know from experience that if I admitted as private at Bunbury Regional (BRH), I would have been rejected by SJOG, as health funds will currently only pay for one episode of care and that would have been taken up by BRH.

I felt nobody would listen to me and they wouldn't change my admission, their private liason officer tried to get me to sign a form without explaining one bit what I was signing and what it would mean, to state I wasn't compelled to be admitted as private and I told them I wouldn't sign it because I wanted to be admitted as public. 

The next negatives was to do with the shared campus and the way the 2 hospitals interact from a patient perspective. I needed an emergency C Section and the only available theatre was a SJOG one, and after the surgery they tried to reject me from recovery at SJOG stating I was a public patient and they wouldn't accept me into their recovery.

I was fresh off the table, baby on my chest and I recall the staff were having a full argument about if I should or shouldn't be allowed into recovery and they had to make phone calls etc meanwhile my midwife seemingly begged someone to take my blood pressure. It was beyond scary and ridiculous that my and my babies life were seemingly put at risk due to hospital politics.

Another thing that occurred was that I was taken down on a labour room bed, and I understand I was meant to be placed onto a ward bed after surgery, and this bed was delivered from BRH down to the SJOG theatre, but the communication got lost, and they just put me back on the labour bed. 2 hours or so later they came into my room and said I needed to be moved off the bed due to it being a labour bed. I was 2 hours post surgery, and they were trying to slide me across to another bed, when my spinal had worn off and I was in incredible amounts of pain. I feel it should never have happened, and wasn't good enough that I was put through that pain. I think the communication and the politics between these two hospitals needs major review as I believe it impacts so many peoples care.