Breast Care Nurses

I think @SoldierCrab  has hit the nail on the head.  It's a bit like doctors I suppose.  Some are hugely sympathetic, some are straight down the line, some you have to constantly ask questions to get answers. Some are planning their next golf game.

I let my BCN off the hook so to speak after I changed oncologists and went to a different hospital so she could spend more time with newly diagnosed patients.  I was ok and didn't feel the need to contact her really by that stage.  I could have rang anytime though.

Public vs private.  I think it depends on the hospitals as well.  Some people have great service in the public system and some people have shitty service and follow up in the private system.  

I had no issues at all, I went public for the surgery and got admitted as a public patient in a private hospital for chemo and radiation. Both hospitals and every nurse or Dr I dealt with was awesome. 

I was diagnosed on a Friday,  I had just gotten back from my GP with the dreaded news and the hospital rang.  Surgical apt the following Friday  If I had of chosen  the mastectomy instead of lumpectomy I would have been able to have my surgery on the Monday with the same surgeon I could have paid a lot of money to if I had gone to his rooms around the corner from the hospital.   It was my choice to chase around the primary lesion as it couldn't be felt, so it was one month to the day. 

Generally elective surgery will get shuffled to make way for more urgent cases. 

The whole thing is a team effort and maybe that is sometimes why the public system is more of a well oiled machine. Everyone knows how the other members work, everyone follows up because they don't want their butts kicked by the powers that be.

Don't know.  Just a though

Back to the original subject.  More funding, more nurses.