Why checks are needed on private hospitals

A personal experience has made me realise how little public scrutiny there is of private hospital practice compared with public health services.

Four years ago I had heart surgery at a Brisbane private hospital, involving five coronary bypasses. That part of it has worked well all this time. However, the closure of the sternum chest bone has gone badly awry. It failed to heal vertically and surgical wire ties cut the sternum into six separate pieces.

Corrective surgery, on the basis of an ordinary X-ray, was conducted two years later by the same surgeon after months of pain. Broken wiring was sticking into the chest wall.. Surgery was undertaken but without the benefit of a superior CT scan which would have disclosed the breaks. The chest was wired up again, with enough wire I sometimes feel for a small cattle paddock.

AND THEN …. The wiring fractured again - or became “united” in X-ray speak – and the six parts failed to heal and come together. The surgeon suggested I should consult elsewhere.

AND THEN … after more specialist consultations over a period of some months, I was advised that, at age 79 and 11 months, further corrective surgery would be of high risk and could leave me in greater difficulty.

The hospital concerned, after correspondence, offered to “meet my out- of-pocket hospital expenses” but as no further surgery is now to be conducted, this is not necessary. My modest expenses for consequent consultations have been reimbursed.

The responses of the hospital administration has been sympathetic and "correct" but it was surprising to learn eventually of the legal disconnect between hospital administrations and those classed as “visiting medical practicioners” whose consulting rooms are in the precincts.

Now if all this had occurred in a public hospital with a public surgeon, I could have protested politically at various levels. I have always relied on private health insurance – this isn’t much of a help where disputes are involved. Going to law? No way, not at my age!

My private health insurer, Medibank Private, has already paid for two major surgeries. But they’re interested in processes not outcomes.