My 90 year old mother was recently transferred from Calvary Public Hospital to Calvary Private…read morewhere she spent 4 days and nights. I am sorry to say it was not a good experience at all. I will add here that my mother is normally not one to complain ..... The issues were as follows: 1. She was walked into her room on arrival by a nurse who left her standing and said she had a sicker patient to attend to. My mother could barely speak and was very weak from having double pneumonia. She was not shown how anything worked and was left without water or offered anything to eat. She did not see anyone until midnight ... even at this time no-one really made an effort to help her. 2. The room's air conditioning was blowing so that it was aimed right at her, not good when you have pneumonia. She had to get the cleaning lady to help her adjust it as she rarely saw any nurses. 3. The "5 star meals" were consistently not what my mother had ordered on the menu they gave her and two nights in a row she was not given any dinner at all. She had to ask the lady picking up trays to try to find her something to eat. 4. My mother had not been able to brush her teeth for 4 days prior coming to the private hospital when at the general hospital and was not given a change of gowns or had a shower in that same period of time. When she tried to have a shower it took ages for the water to heat up and due to poor drainage ended up flooding the bathroom area. The tiles were extremely slippery and when this was mentioned to a nurse they just bought her a chair to sit in ... flooding and all. 5. The heavy plastic covering the mattresses and pillows was extremely uncomfortable to sleep on and caused a rash on my mothers back. A steroid cream was prescribed by the doctor but no-one ever came to apply it. 6. When walking down the hall as it got closer to her discharge time my mother mentioned that even when she passed the desk not one of the nurses even looked up, smiled or acknowledged her. She felt the experience was very impersonal and uncaring. 7. There was no reading light in the room just the bright overhead light and the TV did not have any sound working for 3 of the days she was there. I live over seas so was not able to visit her. I called daily and heard the hospital recording saying how "our caring staff will be right with you". I even spoke with one of the nurses and asked that they check in with her from time to time to see if she needed help with anything. Friends that visited were appalled at the situation. On a positive note my mum was impressed by the care of her doctor and the nurses did bring in her medication promptly. The "caring" just wasn't there. I hope Kim Bradshaw (the new boss of CBPH) reads this review and tries to correct the attitude of the staff and running of the new hospital. It is so positively pumped up in all the write-ups online but this does not seem to be the reality of the situation. Sharon Fotre

I spent 4 nights post breast-cancer surgery in Calvary Private Hospital last week. I found the…read moreexperience positive from beginning to end. Being so new, the hospital is spotless. All equipment, rooms, bathrooms are fresh. Without exception, I found the nursing staff empathic, helpful, sensitive and yet treated me like an adult, allowing me to make decisions about my care etc. i liked the opportunity to be left in peace for long periods, unless I needed attention. For someone who does not enjoy their own company, they may find the experience unsettling. For me, it aids my recovery. Negative: Only free-to-air tv, so during long sleepless nights, the choice of programming is dire! Thank you to all. Lynne

Doctors are good, but VERY expensive. No bulk billing. I was…read morecharged $97 for a phone consultation. 9 minutes and 19 seconds. My partner had to call CALMS on Easter monday and I only paid $90 for that. So, upshot? Wait till after hours and call CALMS.... A while ago, my doctor charged me $120 for an extended (in-person) consultation. The correct price should have been $150. OK, but that meant I only got the basic Medicare refund. The refund for to proper price is much higher. I was out of pocket because the doctor discounted my charge.

I realise it's very dependant on each doctor, but my experience has not been good…read more As a person I'm sure my doctor is lovely, but to be sent for blood tests and not have any feed back for 8 weeks is unacceptable. Even after I've called them, the receptionist told me everything is 'just fine'. I get missed calls but not one message to say who's calling and to call back! After doing my own tests through a chemist I realise my results are not good or 'just fine' and so have found another doctor. Too much small town doctoring in Canberra and not enough action. Apparently they don't care about 'duty of care'!