Pharyngeal cancer surgery in 4 Oncology clinics in Australia

Emergency dept is an absolute joke. Sitting in here in pain, waiting to be looked at by a doctor for 4+ hours now on a Wednesday mid morning, with about 15 other patients. Nurses “visit” the waiting area of the emergency dept, as if in a hurry, but doesn’t look like any of the patients are actually receiving any care. Came in here with a fractured hand, will be leaving with not just a fractured hand, but also a low blood sugar level and migraines as complimentary gift. Such a waste of tax payer dollars.

Vote of "No Confidence" - Do Not go here! Get yourself to Sunshine if you have an emergency! It's definitely not the Royal Melbourne, and not even close to the experience at Sunshine. To describe the Mercy as "Parochial" is to be extremely kind. When I present at an ED in an Australian capital city, I expect a confident workforce, a competent director and a facility that provides a comprehensive ED. It's a sad indictment that Australia's shining cornerstone; its world-class medical system seems so utterly diminished and beleaguered by the shockingly poor example given up as The Mercy Hospital. Having just moved to the area, I was appalled with my first [and I hope only] experience at the Mercy Hospital. I was directed by my GP to the Mercy after a suspected stroke. I had blurred vision and a screaming headache. I waited for Eleven uncomfortable hours to be told by a somewhat bureaucratically limited doctor lacking any ability in patient empathy, that there was no one at the Mercy who could be sure of my condition. Or apparently, possess the ability to read a CT Scan. Filled with anxiety and a lack of blood sugar, my confidence in this hospital's abilities instantly evaporated. I am a diabetic and by this time was in real need of food. Apparently, food is also on the list of things NOT currently available at the Mercy. I immediately discharged myself and had my partner drive me to Sunshine. What a difference Sunshine is compared to the Mercy. Food, doctors with empathy, doctors that can read CT scans, admin staff that know how to process an emergency department - not to mention the ability to drive up to the front door. The Mercy needs to take a very long hard look at itself, its facilities, and its staffing capabilities. Start with replacing its director. Who by the way, made an appearance on the ED floor with a triumphantly lame attempt at explaining away his ineptitude at heading up and implementing a capable ED. A fact not lost on the onlooking and demoralized waiting room. A defective leader will only ever attract the same. The ED had a clear communication disconnect between triage and general assessment. (Yes I've had a stroke. But I'm also a diabetic - the two can be true at the same time!) It has a fundamentally flawed waiting room procedure and process reminiscent of some outback roadside clinic. The doctors and general staff seemed limited to and hindered by bureaucracy, with no evident desire to move beyond remedial procedure and develop an ability to infix confidence in their patients. This defines a workforce lacking in experience under incapable leadership. A fact that is picked up and amplified by their patient's experience. As reflected by the multitude of negative experiences retold on this public site.

The fact that this is a hospital is laughable. Lack of experienced qualified staff and good management. Almost lost my wife and child due to a staff not knowing what they were doing. Also don’t get me started on their emergency department. When I was in London during peak covid 19 while thousands of people were dying, the wait time in emergency was only 4hrs, here it’s 11hrs+ wait. How can you call this a first world country. Australians pay big tax dollars almost 30% or more of what they earn working hard, this should be invested into hospitals and other needed services. There needs to be another hospital in the west. Maybe Tarneit or Truganina because this place is shambolic. If you can, please wait to see your GP and pray it’s bulk billed or try to put your own broken legs together. It’ll be better than going into Werribee mercy.

Dr Anthony Chau was my angel and lifesaver.. I suffered for 3.5months with a L4L5 bulging disc and he pulled me out of hell. I will be forever grateful for his care, compassion and service. He did a remarkable job. I feel so blessed 🙏 thank you Dr Anthony Chau with all my heart.

Dr Papacostas completely misdiagnosed me and caused me three extra months of pain and loss of mobility. Thankfully I got a second opinion and have just had surgery to correct a prolapsed disc. The pain has now gone, and I have regained all function in my leg. My main grip with him is that he did not listen to my concerns on the follow-up appointment which was by phone. He just dismissed them out of hand and told me the problem was being caused by arthritis and to seek pain management. If he had reviewed the MRI (which I doubt) he would have seen the prolapsed disc which was quickly picked up by the second neurosurgeon who was looking at the same MRI. My message to him is to listen to what the patient is telling you

BCNC has been very professional and taken great care with their service's to both my husband and myself. I recently have been seeing Dr Amato who performed a spinal fusion on me, and it was nothing but a good experience. Dr Amato has a great bed side manner, explains everything well, and great post operative care. I had no hesitations deciding to go forth with a second fusion required. Thank you BCNC, Dr Campbell, and Dr Woods, but most of all thank you Dr Amato - you are a champion.

Treated at the old Peter Mac many years ago and it was beyond excellent. But my experience at the new Peter Mac includes a lost referral, lost history, lost blood results, lost u/s results, relevant medication information not given, existing medical conditions potentially impacted by proposed treatment not considered or discussed, and incorrect information documented that contradicts what my GP sent to them AND which contradicts reports from when I was there before!. Trying to get it sorted out - impossible.

Subjected to absolutely disgusting treatment at this hospital. Elective Surgery Manager was rude , terse and has no people skills what so ever. As expected when I lodged a request for explanation the Cancer Surgery Manager chose to disregard key facts and dismissed me completely. Patients aren’t just Medicare numbers . Avoid this hospital at all costs .

The peter mac staff are all awesome from the security and domestic staff to the teams of surgeons and nurses who helped me through the whipple procedure i had back on 15th March . I cant say thankyou enough. The ongoing post operation treatment has also been fantastic.

I had self funded surgery here 6 weeks ago. My surgeon and anaesthetist were amazing. 10/10. The nurses I had when I came out of recovery were great. Attention to detail, caring, wonderful. The nurses I had the following day were average. The surgery cost $11950, I was in hospital less than 18 hours. My admission was messed up, so after fasting from 9pm for an 8am surgery, I wasn’t admitted until after 4pm. Surgery went great and was out of recovery by 8pm. The next morning I wasn’t given any fluids or anything and was discharged not long after waking. I was given the wrong discharge papers and medication scripts too. Please do better in future. I would definitely think twice about having surgery here again.

All the staff at the Wesley are amazing. Even when staff are super busy, they are friendly, they make time for you and your every concern. The staff look happy and appear to work as a well oiled team. Comfortable rooms and great food choices (including Vegan options) and service. Remember, it is a Hospital not a restaurant. It really is the best! Thank you Wesley

Professional staff, every nurse and doctors were amazing at the Wesley hospital. Special thanks to Dr GOUGH who performed an excellent thyroid operation.

Thursday 8th December 9.30pm to 2.30 Janice the nurse in emergency was amazing. She was kind and caring and looked after my son who was having heart problems. Thank you so much Janice! The doctor was also lovely A kind Irish man Very helpful, answering all of our questions.

my partner was taken into the ER on tuesday afternoon and spend all night and all morning wednesday there, the nurses were amazingly dutiful and took great care of both him and me. our nurse sarah went above and beyond for us and did her best to make us comfortable and keep him in the best condition possible at the time. i'm super thankful for all the nurses.

Long waits for surgeries and wait times can take over an hour for a booked appointment. A Dr or two aren’t helpful but staff do their best with the pressure and demand they are under. I have been going to this hospital since birth. They are doing more renovations so it should more upgraded within the next few years. Apart from that staff and nurses are great. Cafes and plenty of food and coffee to grab whilst you wait.

I cannot thank the wonderful people at this hospital who showed great care and understanding to my situation. They were efficient, caring and above all very professional. I cannot rate them highly enough. They deal with some very difficult people and situations and to their credit come back next shift to do it all again. They are special people who should be recognised for their effort.

The doctors and Medical staff are great and they deserve a 5 star based on my experience. However, the Hospital desperately needs to look into how their back office staff treat people. My mother was admitted as an overseas patient. When she was discharged, a lady came and asked us to go to a private area and she put some papers asking me to sign it. When I asked her what I was being asked to sign, her response was “will explain once you have signed it.” When I declined, she started getting aggressive and rude. It came to a point that I had to ask her to get a second person come in and witness what she her aggressive and pushy behaviour. Finally when a second person was present in the room, her behaviour changed to an angel. Then we went through the invoice realising that we were charged for 3 nights when mom was admitted for 2 nights only. There were other errors as well. I am writing this because I hope that this will alert private patients and they are prepared to deal with these scenarios.

I had to have an emergency surgery on the 11/11/2023. I just want to thank the Staff at the hospital for such a professional , polite and extremely well co-ordinated care from start to end . From arriving at the beginning and being interviewed by the first point of contact (nurse) and then the admin staff, both professional and friendly. When the nurse from the Emergency Department came to fetch me , she was brilliant in her care, after the Doctor saw me . She was so thorough and careful in attaching my drip for my medication . She was so careful in finding a strong vein to take my blood , and answering any questions I asked her. What an amazing nurse. The doctor was also polite and friendly and explained what needed to be done . One of the surgical team came to speak to me as well and told me exactly what the surgery was all about , also friendly and polite . They then moved me to a ward and the PSA staff member was friendly and polite. At the ward , there was a student nurse and she was so professional in her manner of asking questions and checking my Blood pressure , temperature and oxygen , she even went to find my wife a chair. When the student's shift ended , the nurse that took care of me was even more amazing , explaining what was going to happen and reassuring me , went with me to the theatre and escorted back after the surgery. Took great care in her treatment of me , with pain relief and antibiotics through my drip. I just want to say a big thank you to her. The anaesthetists were so thorough and reassuring as well as polite and friendly . Both were so willing in answering and explaining my concerns or questions I had .The anaesthetist nurse assistant was polite and friendly. The surgeon was great , helpful and friendly . Sunshine hospital is so clean and has great modern facilities and technology. Thank you so much Sunshine hospital for your great service from ALL your staff .

Yesterday, I had to have an operation at RPA. It was amazing service, and the staff were wonderful. All the nurses and doctors were fantastic, and I would like to commend them on their work and thank them again very much. Great job. Thank you 😊

The hospital is hit miss like all of NSW Health. The nurses have mental health issues so depending on which nurse you get, either you will receive good care or be subjected to abuse like having your meds not given, information not provided, details not passed to your doctors (who often review remotely so you don’t see them every day). The outsourced food is not relevant to your needs and not replaced with adequate nutrition if you have allergies etc. I saw one new father deliberately kept outside because the nurses didn’t like him then watched them laugh at the struggling new mum who was doing things without support and the nurses just watched, didn’t help her. Same with trying to get information from Doctors, they simply don’t talk to you. The information provided by the nurses is often half-truths designed to placate people not be honest with them.

I don’t know if they will see it but thank you so much to Maddie, Lisa, Eva, Greg, Todd and all of the other overworked nurses and drs who looked after me whose names I didn’t catch or couldn’t remember. I just had my appendix out and it was my first ever hospital visit and everyone was so kind and attentive. I really appreciate how hard you all work. Thank you so much ♥️

If you want to feel safe, respected and that you will recieve decent care, then don't go to this Emergency Department. The street from the car park to the ED is dark and deserted, the triage nurse was condescending and kept trying to put words int my mouth about my own pain to minimise it. The admin person was deadpan and complained that my doctor was not on their records at the same address I had for her. She kept looking at me like it was my mistake. The room seemed deliberately set up to get rid of people, the temperature was freezing cold, the television was so loud that people were having trouble hearing their name called. It also forced staff to yell names out, contributing to the excessive unreasonable amount of noise. Some poor baby was crying, clearly distressed, for half an hour (seemingly unattended) and three elderly people were left in cold uncomfortable seats that caused my body pain, so I hate to imagine their pain. And to top things off, the hand sanitiser was empty, so chances are if you touched anything, it would have germs on it. Just don't go there. Clearly they don't want you and you will be in more pain leaving than when you arrived.

The emergency staff and most of the nurses were fantastic. Once you reach the maximum subsidy they get from the commonwealth government regardless of how sick you are. You are moved to the ends of the hospital with no care or caring. I was told my private health insurance made no difference here and I should be in a private hospital. We wonder why our health system is so screwed up. This is a great indication why. I will be going private from now on. I know where my business is not wanted.

My friend was in hospital for 5 hours complaining she was unable to breathe due to a most likely respiratory infection. She got let into emergency pretty fast but then after getting a few blood tests and a cannula nothing else really happened. After the cannula, the doctor said she most likely had an infection, she asked them ‘what type of infection’ and he said ‘I don’t know, I’ve only known you for two minutes’. And then after waiting for a while, we asked another nurse if we could just get an update and she said ‘if we ask the doctors, that means they stop working’ and then opened our curtain and wouldn’t let us shut it because ‘she wouldn’t be able to see we were there’. Then after another hour we asked to leave and then the nice nurse that we liked said we could because they did all they could, when they could’ve told us that many hours ago. We still have no idea what is wrong with our friend #emo 😖

My experiences here aren't great at all. My partner had his appendix out here this year, kept cancelling his operation at 5pm then not giving him any dinner, this went on for 4 days. I was there for a scan for my pregnancy last week. Person doing it was male, and quite rude, ignored any questions I had. This morning we went again to find out our scheduled scan was already completed two weeks ago, that they had done two scans in one, so we went to have our bloods done. I'm not usually impatient ornride towards hospital staff at all, but the woman who pushed in front of us was seen first, and the phlebotomists, all 5 of them the. Left us sitting there and saw 9 other people ahead of us while we waited for over an hour, they just saw anyone else who walked in. It was so rude I eventually got up and walked out.

This is my second visit for surgery the first was a couple of years ago for a kidney stones I fasted for 3 days waiting each day for the non-existing surgery. Today I am in exactly the same position, day 2 of fasting. If you are needing emergency surgery, expect to wait, be frustrated and be hungry. PS they will give you a couple of sandwiches when the message finally comes in that the surgery will be tomorrow. Walk out get hit by a car and then you may get looked at

Alone mother with my child. We had the worse experience. Staff don't communicate, no catering for remote living transports. Indigenous just abuse the staff and ended up in our room also using their kid as a place to sleep the night. I hope to never be sent to this place again.

You will probably die before you get your waitlist surgery appointment date, unless another hospital saves you out of your misery. Stay away from this hospital as there is absolutely no compassion here!!

This was my fourth time at this hospital for post-surgery exercise, today I had two other people's records on my file. The staff member that was assigned to me, was confused because of this. I was there for my back exercise, not my hip or knee. You can only blame the Qld health office staff for this. THANK GOD I WAS NOT HAVING A OPERATION. ANOTHER MISTAKE FROM QLD HEALTH

I had a hemorrhage type stroke in the ER room after being denied the usage of Ryan's Rule, staff is extremely rude and unprofessional. Since the stroke I have been refused triage and denied medical treatment every time I attempt to present to emergency with the Doctor's very rudely telling me they aren't going to treat me and to go home during my acute medical episode which included my brain actively hemorrhaging. Have only ever received treatment when the Police have done an EEA which involved the staff drugging with me high amounts of Morphine the first time and Fentanyl the second time making me unconscious for the EEA before releasing me outside which resulted in me getting hit by a car. Incredibly disgusting behavior by an abhorrent group of staff and pathetic excuses for Nurses and Doctors.