Sports Surgery clinic Santry

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Acl rehab

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I recently had ACL surgery costing nearly €9000 in the sports surgery clinic. I had attended a few days appointments & was v impressed with the facilities even though I only seen my consultant briefly on 2 occasions.

When I arrived for my surgery and was brought to the ward everything changed considerably . I was led to a small 2 bed ward with a broken fixed TV over my bed & advised to change into gown. I did not meet one Irish person and nobody seems to have empathy that I was nervous & anxious.it was like I entered a poor country .
After my surgery I was left on trolley bed until I woke and waited quite a while for anyone to come near me. I was wheeled back up to room and a half hour later offered tea and toast. As it was 5.30pm I was told I missed physio & my evening meal. I had been fasting for 11 hours.

The aftercare was just shocking. Nobody came near me. I rang the buzzer several times as needed to go to the toliet .a half hr later a filipino nurse arrives and asks me will I use bed pan. I knew from my research thst I should have been moving my operated leg soon after operation . I said I would go to the toliet. The pain was unreal excruciating. I was put back in bed and left there. My buzzer was also pulled out if wall. At 6.30 am my famous surgeon arrived . From the onset I could tell he would prefer if I did not speak. I told him I had unbelievable pain in my knee .he replied ' well it was your own decision to have the surgery ' take care a handshake and he was gone. Nobody came near me and I was told I had to be out of waRd by 11am . A young physio arrived at 10.30 told me to wiggle my toes helped me out of bed gave me crutches and went for small walk .10 min total. I asked her to please get a nurse to take needle from my hand .an hr later a nurse arrived and took it out and left. My husband arrived at 1.30 pm got me out if bed dressed me brushed my teeth packed up my stuff. He wheeled my case beside me & we left the ward . An older filipino nurse was behind a counter she never said are you leaving ...goodbye ...nothing. the worst experience of my life .totally shocking. How can private hospitals get away with this? Should I report this to my health care provider Irish life
 
Shocking. Arrogant consultant. What is it with the majority of consultants. They think there God most of them. We all need to speak up to them.
 
You are always better to try to get the care through a public hospital in my experience. Private hospitals are entirely profit driven. Hence employ less nursing staff giving rise to the situation you found yourself in post op. I have also been a patient in a private facility. Would not do it again or wish it for my family unless for minor procedures/investigations. Unfortunately the system is broken. There are too few consultants in the irish healthcare system for the workload/population. Hence now approaching a million on waiting lists and a record number of patients on trolleys beating even the trolley crises that was previously called an 'emergency' by Mary Harney many years ago. The public are now immune to this emergency and I think are turning a blind eye to the hardship that is on ED corridors and elsewhere everyday. A nasty Aussie flu its on its way for the Winter I hear. Our Minister for health is refusing to even engage with consultants on any issue and didnt bother to attend their AGM on Saturday. He wont pay consultants equal salaries for an equal days work or address waiting lists. The new Childrens Hospital wont be able to open as consultants wont come back to Ireland unless they are paid equally. The Slaintecare plan will drive the best consultants out of public hospitals and cost millions in lost revenue to public hospitals. So more private healthcare and further erosion of public services will occur into the future. Anyway I am sorry to hear of your experience with your knee but I would place the blame on lack of Nursing support. I would encourage you to write a letter to the hospital in question outlining your very unpleasant experience. I hope the consultant did a good fix on your ACL. He would not have gotten most of the 9k - Im sure some of that went to the hospital. Consultants pay staggering amounts of medical indemnity insurance (rising every year) and overheads prior to getting paid and of course 55% tax (incl USC, PRSI) etc.
 
I would advise you to write to the hospital and copy it to your health insurance company with a covering letter asking them to go through the invoice in detail to make sure you were not charged for services you did not receive. I agree that public hospitals are far better but unfortunately you may have to wait a long time for some procedures but people who have emergencies are always seen and well looked after. Private hospitals are a business .
 
I know two people who used the Santry Clinic and thought it was great. That was a few years ago now though.

There are complaints about both private and public hospitals. It depends on the staff you get.

If it was as bad as you say, what about HIQUA? Do they have a role in private hospitals?

Brendan
 
I had ACL reconstruction in BlackRock Clinic years ago. Aside from tearing it again a couple of years later, I couldn't really fault the experience, although the recovery from the op was indeed excruciating, much worse than the injury itself.

I've had subsequent minor knee surgeries (scopes, keyhole, etc), both publicly and privately and in my experience the private service was much better than public. I've always felt rushed out the door during public consultations.

So sorry to hear of your experience in Santry. I have no direct experience of it but it seems to be where all the top gaa stars get there surgeries, especially ACLs.
 
HIQA is only for public hospitals. Private hospitals (and a small number of public hospitals) are accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI). You could write to your insurance company but they will probably not respond.

You should send in a formal complaint to the hospital directly as they are required to respond to all written complaints. I have sat on hospital complaint committees and my advice would be to keep it factual, be specific, and avoid using emotional/dramatic language. If I was on the receiving end of your letter I would be most struck by: poor attitude of consultant, not getting evening meal, risk to patient safety due to delays/lack of staff.

Not getting a meal because it was after 5.30pm is not appropriate - did they not offer you any food at all?

Whether the staff are from Cork or Calcutta is not relevant. The best nurses I have ever worked with were Filipino. As for nursing numbers, they are typically higher in private hospitals than in public, but this varies between hospitals and even between wards.
 
My son had his ACL done in the Santry Sports Clinic and for us the experience was absolutely world class , ultra professional ...very surprised to hear the above.
 
In fairness to the OP i dont think there was anything racist in his remarks, in my opinion. Is it racist to describe someone as Irish or American or whatever. Should we entirely ignore a persons country of origin when having a discussion ? If so ....why ?
 
I didn't state it was racist, however it was certainly irrelevant. Did you miss the part where the OP stated "it was like I entered a very poor country" or "I did not meet one other irish person" and equates that with there being no empathy!
I'm sorry but I won't ignore comments like that that are totally irrelevant to the discussion, I would have been sorry the OP didn't get the care s/he felt s/he should have received but his/her other comments meant that went out the window.
 
I also don't see why and for what reason the nationality of staff in any place makes any difference whatsoever and mentioning it would show to me that the person has racist tendencies.

A colleague is currently having work on a knee and thigh injury and she can not sing their praises high enough.

She would not have much spare cash nor has health insurance, yet they have treated her exceptionally well and also reduced their fees considerably.

Also an elderly friend has recently had ankle surgery there and also could not rate the place any higher.
 
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