Sydney Adventist Hospital - part 2

OK, if you are going to hospital for an operation you expect an operation right? Wrong! Not at the SAH. I got there at 7.00 am to dutifully and patiently await my surgery. At 10.30 am I was processed through day surgery like a sheep going for vaccination. They had no day surgery bays left so I was stuck in a converted broom closet where the TV was yet to be connected.

Here I waited patiently, like a good patient. At 1.00 pm, for lack of a call button, I started to roam the corridors of day surgery to find an answer. Here I was greeted with the questions "Why are you out of bed?" and "Why did you not press your call button?" Well, nobody had come to see me, my surgeons list had finished half an hour ago and I don't have a call button, but sorry for thinking you might actually like to look after your patients.

I got told an answer that my surgeon was running late and just to wait patiently. So I did. Until at 3.00 pm I saw my surgeon who was supposed to be in the OR. I called to him and he asked me what I was still doing here? Apparently my surgery had been cancelled due to a complication upstairs with another patient and my operating room time was pushed.

Yeah right. If my surgeons OR time was pushed why was he still there at three o'clock? And how can a hospital with twelve OR's not find room for a surgeon with a regular morning list. Sorry SAH, I don't buy it. SO my surgery was cancelled and I hadn't eaten for over 18 hours and all they could manage was a cheap sorry, a poorly prepared selection of sandwiches, a juice box and they couldn't even pay for my trip home.

Eventually, I had my op and the hospital luckily didn't kill me. But it was a miserable, de-humanising experience. I didn't get to go to the ward until after my surgery, so I had no idea of where I was, the place was dull and grey, the food was lousy and the nurses were rude and either inexperienced or slouches. A sure 0/10.

Next time a much better experience at North Shore Private. Until then, stay well:)

Sydney Adventist Hospital

To get me to go back here you would have to pay me an obscene amount of money. I have so much to say about this hospital it will be at least two posts and none of it good. So, I'll start with my horror stories.

I have two of them. The first was when I was booked in for a routine lithotripsy (shock waves sent through your body to break down kidney stones). At Warners Bay I used to get a general anaesthetic for this surgery and when I did, I normally woke up feeling groggy but otherwise OK and the need for pain killers was rare post-op. At the SAH they used to sedate you and give you a massive hit of pethidine for the pain, which you needed because it hurt like hell.

When I had this they came to get me from the day surgery ward and as of yet, they hadn't given me the sedative or the pethidine. So they hurriedly gave me the drugs and told me that it would take a long time to get to the lithotripsy room and the drugs would kick in on the way.

Two minutes later the drugs hadn't kicked in and I was served up on the table with what felt like someone kicking me in the back. After another five minutes the drugs had kicked in but the damage was done. Between the pain and the drugs I was spent and little did I know I was only halfway through my nightmare.

When I returned to the day surgery ward I asked for more painkillers. They said I was not allowed any more pethidine and so all I could have was panadol or panadeine forte. Now panadol would not touch the sided so I opted for the panadeine. One problem, I am allergic to codeine, the active ingredient in panadeine, and I had a red wrist tag that told people of this, but the nurse just went ahead and gave it to me anyway.

Right now I am feeling like crap. I am so wired I can't even walk and I feel nauseous because of the panadeine and they want me out of there so they can close down day surgery, so they wheel me out in a wheel chair where my then girlfriend is ready to drive me home in my new BMW. We get out the front of the hospital and I vomit all over the inside of my shiny new car.

Yes, I hate the Sydney Adventist hospital and yes, I learnt a valuable lesson that day.

Next time I will finish off my tales of the Sydney Adventist Hospital. Until then, stay well:)