The Valley Private Hospital, Mulgrave, VIC

I hope that you will publish my letter of gratitude. I recently spent nine days at the Valley private hospital. The whole experience has blown me away and I feel absolutely compelled to write about my experience and thank everyone involved in my care during my stay. During my time there, I had a number of investigations and surgery to fix a long term problem and have regained my quality of life. I had been put in the too hard basket by hospitals that I'd previously believed to the best private and public hospitals that I had attended. From the moment I entered the Valley private hospital, I found the staff from admitting, imaging, pathology, surgical, ICU, dietician, stoma nurse, a very dedicated gastroenterologist, an amazing specialist physician, an incredible anaesthetist that really went far and beyond his duty in my care, an absolutely amazing surgeon, who not only did an incredible surgery but his unwavering support meant a great deal to me. The catering staff who went out of their way to accommodate a very special diet, a dedicated cleaning staff who took pride in their work, a patient liaison officer with a bright cheery disposition who made a difference. Last, but extremely important in my care, was the excellence in nursing that I received especially on the Flynn ward, absolutely outstanding, dedicated and caring people who made a huge difference in my recovery. It's very obvious that the staff in this hospital not only enjoy their jobs, but work well as a team. I believe that it makes a huge difference to a patients welfare and recovery time to be supported and cared for by people who are totally dedicated to their work. Never in my life have I received care that even comes close to what I received. I would highly recommend this hospital to anyone and should I ever need further treatment in the future, it'll be the only hospital that I would choose to be in. Sincerely Lynn Peters Yarragon Victoria.

To start my hospital adventure, I had a phone call from the hospital saying my anaesthetist will be charging $1500 dollars above the gap. What! "Is there one that doesn’t charge above the gap," I asked. "Not in this hospital.' she replied. Great, had no choice. I pay thousands of dollars into private health hoping that it will cover expenses like these. I was rung at home to come in early 11.30 so they could do bloods and ECG etc before surgery in the afternoon. My partner and I sat in the waiting room for two and a half hours waiting for someone to come and see us. I was nearly ready to pack up and forget the whole thing when a recovery nurse came around and said your operation is in ten minutes why is nothing done? They proceeded to rush me through to pre admissions, did some quick bloods and ECG and said get on the trolley you are going in now. Communication was lacking in all departments, the only good thing from that was I didn’t have time to panic. The anaesthetist then took four attempts to get a vein in my hands for the cannula and left my hands and arms extremely bruised. I also woke up with bad bruising on the inside of one thigh - what that was from I have no idea. I spent the first night post- op in ICU. They were very good. I was then moved to the Flynn Ward into a shared room. The hospital is very tired looking and needs some tender loving care (paint, few modern fixtures etc). The nurses are run off their feet and did the best they could under the circumstances. The call bells keep going until they are turned off which is really annoying, and disturbs the rest one needs after surgery. Day five post-op arrived and we hadn’t seen the Doctor once. We had not seen any surgeon post-op at all. I had had enough; demanded to see the Doctor and to get out of that hospital. He turned up for five minutes, spoke at me not with me, signed a couple of forms and said see you in your follow up apt in Devonport. I jumped in at this stage to ask a few questions: wound care for one, what can I do with neck etc, because nobody had told me what to do and what I was allowed to do on leaving the hospital. I couldn’t ask much more as he was out the door. I had to arrange my own script and medical certificate. I have a bill from a Dr I have never heard of, will have to wait and see in my follow up apt.