Private hospital with Paed service Gold Coast or Brissie?

[surfergal]

Which hospitals have private Paed facilities in Brisbane or the Gold Coast? I know John Flynn at Tugun doesn't after rocking up there at midnight last weekend only to be shuffled down to a public hospital which we endured a horrendous time at. Can anyone help out?

[cindye]

I don't know if you'd be able to just turn up at a private hospital to see a paediatrician - I know that to see my paed (who has rooms in a private hospital) you need to get a referral from a GP and make an appointment.

I'm in Sydney, but I'm pretty sure it would be the same everywhere?

[bbkb]

yep the mater at sth brissie does that. everytime i have rocked up to the hospital we see a paed there and normally as we have our own outside the hospital they call in ours aswell but every doctor that has been our DS has been a paediatrician.

we make the journey there as we have been told that the other local hospitals dont have that.

[mrmoosmum]

As bbkb said, the Mater in South Brisbane offers private facilities, including private rooms if your child is admitted.

At Royal Childrens in Herston you can request to go private and nominate your paed or only have your child seen by the proper paeds, not trainee doctors (I know they need to learn but they also need to learn when to let someone more experienced take over). If admitted your child will stay in the regular rooms which are terrible compared to those at the Mater.

I found the staff at both places great.

[surfergal]

Appartenly Allamanda on the Gold Coast does... thanks for the comments on the mater in Brissie too.. I was aware of this as my cousin is a Paed there ;-) however we live in Northern NSW and need really to find something on the gold coast. We do have a regular paed at John Flynn who we see in his rooms however there is no Paed ward at this hospital.. but like i said Allamanda does have a private unit. Thanks for your help

[wild at heart]

i am positive there is a paediatric ward at JF (according to the directory outside the elevator there is anyway..?)

[Meesha]

Hi there,

I am a Paediatric Nurse based at the Mater and i travel down to the Gold Coast frequently to 'Retrieve' very ill children.

Allamanda and John Flynn have Paediatric servieces, but you can't be guaranteed that when you take your baby/child in to the emergency department that you'll be seen by a Paediatrician. You would be seen by an Emergency DR and then if admitted to the ward, a Paediatrician would take over but you may not see them for a while, especially if after hours. I'm not sure why you were shuffled off to another hospital, that must have been awful! It may have come down to the Dr coverage that night, which may have been lacking in Paediatrics. If in doubt, you can always phone the hospital before you leave, ask to be put through to the Emergency Department, and speak to the Nurse in charge there, who can tell you if you'll be OK to come or not.

The Mater Children's Hospital Emergency department (NOT the Mater Private Emergency) in South Brisbane is your best bet. Again, you may not be seen by a Paediatrician, but you will be seen by a highly qualified Paediatric Registrar/Emergency Dr at the least.
If you are admitted to the Private ward, then a private Paediatrician will take over. Its worth the drive to go to the Mater.

The Gold Coast Hospital is pretty good for Paediatrics (but has no private Paediatricians) but the waiting times can be so LONG for non urgent things, that you'd be better off driving the hour to Brisbane.

If its urgent then go straight to the Gold Coast Hospital. If its a serious matter then it doesn't matter if you are public or private, the care will be the same. From there, if its very serious, the Mater Retrieval Team will come and transport the child to Brisbane for more specialist care.
Hope this helps.
:yes:

[surfergal]

Yes this is why we returned to John Flynn when DD was 17 days old in the middle of the night as she was born here and the directory out the front states they have paeds. The treating doctor in ED was happy to see her but the triage nurse wasn't. Hence the shuffle down to the public hospital across the boarder. Our paed who we see at John Flynn was very annoyed that we got told to go elsewhere considering the circumstances and the time of night and the distance we had travelled, not to mention the treatment rec'd at the public hospital.

thanks again for your help ladies... ;)

[wild at heart]

my paed is at JF but if dd was admitted we woykd have to go to Tweed