Thanks all for your feedback thus far. Yes, I'm a public patient and at a large teaching hospital in Sydney. They do have a Patient Advocate, with whom I've spoken to before on previous admissions. Seems they are basically a "Tick and Flick" service who go through the motions as stated in one of their Policy and Procedure manuals, but basically lack teeth, time or both. Social Worker...ditto...they might make a fuss, but if The Worshipful Doctor, who pisses eau de cologne and farts air freshner has spoken, what can they do? I simply refuse to believe that in this day and age, they cannot insert these hose pipes under sedation the day before. I'll already be there, in one of their precious beds, and all it would take is a bit of compassion on their part. However it seems that their position is "It's routine, it really is no biggie, it's just a little needle poke for the local, and then it will be over". Well stuff that. I'll bet if I dragged any one of these bozos into a skyvan down at Picton, went up to 12 000ft and invited them to step out and get their knees in the breeze with me, they might not be so brave. I'd assure them that it was all routine, that all the rest of us had done it many times, all it was was a little jump out the door, pull something at some point and then land. Easy peasy. Yeah right, they'd get an almighty shove from the rear from me if they were blocking the doorway for the rest of us. Wussies!!!