Australia's Health System

Generally I steer clear of topics like the health system in Australia.  It's hardly a bone of contention, but this week I'm inspired to blog about it.  One of my friends is in hospital at present.  She's in Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) in Newtown.

Often we hear about how terrible the health system is and that treatment is absolutely appalling.  They say the waiting lists for treatment is bad and that care is awful.  One thing everyone agrees on is that hospital food leaves a lot to be desired, but what about the treatment in general?  Is it really as bad as it seems and as bad as the MSM would have us believe?

I'm not so sure.  A couple of years ago I had to go to St Vincent's Hospital for a severe spider bite.  I went to the Emergency Department.  It was okay.  I had to wait a couple of hours and then I received prompt treatment and off I went.  The treatment was effective so I can't complain about St Vincent's which is in Sydney's Darlinghurst.

I haven't been a patient in RPA like my friend but I've been really impressed with the care she's been receiving.  The staff are friendly and they check up on her regularly.  She has a decent size room and adequate facilities.  The nurses give her medication when she needs it and leave her in peace when she needs that too.

The ward itself is very good - it has a cafe, a news agency and a convenience store.  It's very well equipped for patients and their visitors.  The patients can walk around with their IV drips attached to them and if you wanted to you could find things to do.  This particular ward also has an ANZ ATM, another convenient service for patients.  For the patients who are in for more than a night they can order massages too and pay for a TV for their room.

The only thing that does leave a lot to be desired is the hospital food, which they stuffed up on more than one occasion.  She's a vegetarian and they included chicken in one of her meals, and ham in another.  When her mother went to purchase some food from the cafe it was past its use by date.  Now that would be borderline okay if people were healthy, but in a hospital that's actually unacceptable.

The other thing that seemed quite odd to me was the lack of security.  Granted the type of ward it is so you probably don't need extensive security but you would think they'd want more information than "hi I'm here to see Blah Blah" and buzzing you in. 

It is good though that they don't let you visit if you have a cold or the flu.

Overall RPA appears to be a very good hospital which uses University of Sydney nursing students too, probably because of its proximity to the university.