If you need a Hospital dont go to Northen Beaches Hospital ,, I can honestly say it was the worse hospital Ive ever been in ! Its all over the news how bad it really is and is under investigation .. I had to take someone there today as it was the was the closest hospital .. never again

Pete

I don't think the NB hospital is the only dud out there.
I've had some quite bad experiences with hospitals in Vic.
It's a sign of the times unfortunately.
Public hospitals everywhere seem to be grossly understaffed and the staff they have are overworked and very jaded.
But it could be worse. Talk to someone from America.

Imagine what it is going to be like after the USA goes bankrupt (in the 2020's) and the economic-'nuclear-winter' spreads around the world!

I am not dying to go there.
You need to come south. Good Hospitals in the Gong.
Regards Jim.

Canberra hospitals are great as well. They gave me a $20,000 operation for free here this year. It was bariatric surgery. I am now 20 kilos lighter and my diabetes is no longer . Can't complain about that hey.

Every public hospital has its ups and downs but we are very lucky in Australia to have a pooled tax-payer funded health system. Do note that not every country treats its citizens to what is sometimes incorrectly referred to as 'free healthcare' but we do have it here.

The NSW health system owns around 240 public hospitals and whilst the wait in an accident & emergency department can be a pain, spare a thought for those elsewhere around the world who are told they cannot be treated if they don't have money or health insurance.

The Northern Beaches Hospital is a brand new facility. It will find its rhythm in due course.

There are many good Hospitals in Australia ,But NB is not a place I would go again. One only has to look on the news to see the dramas going on there . Its not only disorganised to the point they can't locate or even provide the location of their patients they have administered,, Or even find them on the computer system / The other issues are its a new Hospital and when it was built very little thought has gone into the Emergence waiting room as its sooo small people have no where to even sit as the chairs run out fast and there the area is so small .
My experience there was . lost patient , Wrong medications , wrong diagnosis of a Patient that had previously been diagnosed with a history ! and medical records already on file, if they had bothered to look . 3 hours I waited in the waiting room waiting for them to find the Patient .

While in the past I agree that our Medical system was a wonderful thing , I feel it has been in decline for years now and is not up to par .
I was a Carer for 7 years with people with Autism and disabilities and so I spent many trips dealing with hospitals back and forth .
I feel they have declined greatly over the last few years ...... Some more than others though.
Not all Hospital systems all over the world are bad either , I agree that the Hospital system in the USA is impossible for the poor , But I also have to admit that while in the UK traveling I had an accident and the treatment I received was superb , But I can also say first hand that the treatment in a Philippines hospital was shocking .
there is no doubt we have one of the best medical systems in the world , But its not what it use to be. ! The old patriot attitude of the past that Australia is the best and has the best of everything in the world is long gone, and generally only believed by people that have never lived in other counties ,,, Australia is a still a good place to be ,But so are are many other counties that also have many great things to offer .
I feel Australia was great when I was a Kid or when I first started work ,,Not so much now . After living in other counties and traveling I can see, that like anywhere it has good and bad points and its a part of the world and the world has many great Counties .

Pete

If you want a hospital that is bad by statistics you could try Royal Adelaide. It is no bigger than Northern Beaches in bed numbers but is physically twice the size for political reasons, doesn't have a co-located private hospital and was plagued with building defects even months after opening, including where none of the six backup generators started during one of South Australia's infamous blackouts.

The thing with Northern Beaches is that it is under a management contract with a company that is new to that arrangement. This means there is a service level agreement between that company and the NSW Department of Health. Things will eventually improve there because it has to and the hospital will not score accreditation unless it does and the management company also risks having its contract torn up unless it meets its obligations.

If anyone wants to know what happens when a hospital loses accreditation they can look at Royal North Shore - the only hospital that has ever lost its accreditation. The facility didn't close but they do lose money from health funds. RNS has regained accreditation and is now a far better facility for the 'wake up' they got as a result of losing it. About 80% of RNS was knocked down and rebuilt as a result.

There is a lot at stake when hospitals do not perform well, both in the public and private systems. Whilst Northern Beaches will go through teething issues with being a new facility, I would agree that this period should soon be coming to an end and the Dept. Health will be reviewing any ongoing issues with some concern and putting a rocket up Healthscope, which manages the place if the issues aren't being resolved.

"..the Hospital system in the USA is impossible for the poor."

Actually, low income get the best deal of all: Free healthcare under Medicaid
And what is the level of service? Excellent, because the hospitals fear lawsuits.
Is it sustainable? No, because it is paid for with huge govt. deficit spending.
How long will it last? Not much longer as there will be Federal fiscal default (or hyperinflation) after next interest-rates spike

It could be worse, NV - Obama could still be in Office. We were on a hiding to nothing here too between 2007 and 2013 with the spending and debt accumulation that was going on at the time.

As Baroness Thatcher once said, "the problem with socialism is that one eventually runs out of other people's money".

Don't get me wrong, I support the health system we have here but it has to be able to pay for itself without creating a sovereign debt risk.

New vista .... You always seem well read regarding the news etc etc.. what's the general feeling over there with the south China sea dramas??? I have realities in Alabama but I've not asked them how people think regarding it or where they feel it's heading ...... I follow it abit on the net and feel it's a ticking bomb...plus the wife has family in Phil...so I hear about it a lot as their in the mist of it .

One hospital I would say was great is Hornsby. I've been in there many times and it's always been good ...my daughter was born there too. I would of gone to Hornsby the other night , but I had to go to the closest and that is NB it's only 5 minutes from my place

Pete

V.P. I would say China is a problem, Trump is making Japan & NATO step up defence spending to help avoid economic collapse of US and the long standing world order of 'pax-americana' .

"..south China sea dramas?"

Radical viewpoint I follow says Chart indicators precede/predict stock market, which in turn precedes/predicts economy, which precedes/predicts wars.

New vista. Yeah I follow it a bit , I just see the south sea as a huge problem and I think sooner than later it's going to go off! The build up has been fast and large , bully tactics , a couple of weeks ago a couple of Chinese war ships pulled into Sydney . Many people did not like them being here though.....The world is changing that's 4 sure .....pete

Whilst I do not support China's push in the South China Sea as it'd be like the US claiming half the Pacific Ocean due to the distance between their west coast and Hawaii, I downplay the Chinese visit to Sydney. Many navies, including ours make goodwill visits to foreign naval ports. They were here to stock up on fuel and provisions and that's all that happened. Having a naval base is good for Sydney's economy.

People did rabbit on in the newspapers about the Chinese sailors brandishing weapons, the stocking up of baby formula and spying. Again, it's just normal activity for a visit like this. The only intel the Chinese would have got during their time here was that all our navy ships are painted grey and they have a big white number on the bow.

I think it is important to remember that whilst China is a problem at times, they are not yet an enemy nation. They are a belligerent nation - a pain in the arse, but at the moment that is all they are.