Forum Discussion

Lago21's avatar
Lago21
Member
5 months ago

Recommendations-North Brisbane -Public v Private- Surgeons

Hi Everyone, 

I do hope everyone is travelling as well as they can be.  Was hoping to hear of experiences and recommendations about Public v Private -North Brisbane. My GP has advised if I choose to go private then I need to find surgeon and they can send referral. Not sure where to start…have rang some surgeons, am feeling like I am looking for a needle in a haystack. Has anyone had experiences with going private and having significant out of pocket expenses? Or going Public and what wait times/facilities are like, that they are comfortable in sharing.  Preliminary advice is that it is likely treatment will be Chemotherapy then surgery, nothing confirmed until appointment with surgeon. 

chemotherapy
surgery
treatment decisions

6 Replies

  • Julez1958's avatar
    Julez1958
    Member
    5 months ago

    HiLago21​ 

    I am in  Sydney and had my surgeries in the private system - double mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction.

    i had significant out of pocket expenses even though I was in a private health fund.

    I was lucky I had the funds available but if I didn’t I could have had treatment in the public system which many ladies have been very satisfied with..

     

  • tisme's avatar
    tisme
    Member
    5 months ago

    I live in Morayfield and went public through the Royal Brisbane, cannot fault the care I got, with regular visits to the specialist clinic at Caboolture Hospital to see the Oncologist.  

  • Jewelsey's avatar
    Jewelsey
    Member
    5 months ago

    Hello hope this helps , I have gone public through Metro North and live in Warner, I attend an annex of  RBWH at TCPH for my chemo and will be having surgery with Dr Diana Tam who is highly renowned as very good surgeon and is so very lovely and open to discussing all  the options moving forward when the time comes. My oncology team is fantastic as are the nurses I have zero complaints and the process took no time at all to start , I have not waited at all for anything.

  • May2024's avatar
    May2024
    Member
    5 months ago

    Hi Lago21, I went private with Dr Ben Green. He was awesome & had such a calming presence! . He operates out of St Andrews War Memorial and The Wesley.  I live on the north side of Brisbane but was happy to travel to have him as the surgeon. The cost had me almost having a heart attack but I would pay all of that again just to have Ben as my surgeon.  In my opinion, he is the best of the best. I was out of pocket more than I would have liked, but I think that was probably down to our private health company.  All the best with your ongoing journey!

  • Koncon25's avatar
    Koncon25
    Member
    5 months ago

    Hi, I was going to go private with Dr Wong from St Vincent's Chermside, I was going to self-fund.  However, I had some other physical complications occur that were unrelated to the breast, so he put me into the public system at Royal Women's Brisbane. He was and is brilliant and has taken care of me with speed. He has also organised a lot of follow-up, to the point I had to slow things down to catch up.  Can't praise him enough, I had to have a mastectomy with some lymph nodes removed.  I am now in follow-up and dealing with the other health complications. All due to Dr Wong catching things and being thorough and fast.  Hope that helps.