"Changes with the pain clinic"

After attending the Pain Clinic at Greenslopes Private Hospital for over a decade and receiving three Medtronic Intrathecal Morphine Pump implants, the excellent service my spouse has received has now been downgraded. The bi-monthly pump refills have now been made the responsibility of the Oncology Centre and so we will no longer have access to the specialist staff who have performed this technically critical service in the past.

RN Catheline and the many who have preceded my spouse have always impressed us with their skill and dedication in providing this service. Now, this experience and skill has to be gained by others. Also the refilling process has to be performed in a doctor's consulting room so we cannot be assured that the booking times of Tuesday and Thursday mornings will be available to us even though we book two months in advance. Although we have attended the clinic six times a year over the last decade or so and provided Greenslopes with hundreds of thousand of dollars revenue we are now a second rate patient whose appointments have to be fitted in between the heavy work load of the Oncology Centre and this service's doctors.

It is unfortunate that Medtronics have given Greenslopes somewhat of a monopoly on providing and servicing their pumps but Greenslopes should not be taking advantage of that at the cost of proper patient care.