Melbourne knee spe******ts

[Unregistered]

I recently had my ACL reconstructed by Hayden Morris. Awesome orthopaedic surgeon and was back up and walking very quickly (according to my physiotherapist).

I had so many problems trying to visit Julian Feller (4 mth wait period. His receptionist was such a b!tch about moving my appointment forward because I didn't go to his "preferred" sports physician for my referral) that I gave up, cancelled my appointment and went to Hayden.

Anyway - I know I made the right decision - great doctor, explained everything and money very well spent.

Thanks also to the staff at Vimy House Private in Kew. I have never met a greater group of nurses than I did there. Great team of theater nurses as well.

[Alla]

I think it is a shame that you had a bad experience with Julian. I've had no problems at all with him or his work. I've even had to shift appointments around and it has all been done with no hastles. I guess that it is all how you find them, what you think of them.

Alla

[rezyn8]

I tore the ACL in my left knee on 14.12.05 and will be having surgery with Iain McLean on February third.

Seems like a nice guy and explained everything to me really well. A few people recommended him to me from past experience. He will be using a hamstring graft as well.

[kike]

had an acl recon by Andrew Mcqueen at the Melbourne Orthopaedics Group , highly recommend him very professional and thorough, im very happy with the job.

[Unregistered]

Happened upon this forum. Really nice to hear of positive experiences with Julian/Vimy House, makes me feel good about what I do :-)

[Unregistered]

I recently had my ACL reconstructed by Hayden Morris. Awesome orthopaedic surgeon and was back up and walking very quickly (according to my physiotherapist).

I had so many problems trying to visit Julian Feller (4 mth wait period. His receptionist was such a b!tch about moving my appointment forward because I didn't go to his "preferred" sports physician for my referral) that I gave up, cancelled my appointment and went to Hayden.

Anyway - I know I made the right decision - great doctor, explained everything and money very well spent.

Thanks also to the staff at Vimy House Private in Kew. I have never met a greater group of nurses than I did there. Great team of theater nurses as well.

What is it about some #%@* medical receptionists? Some of them are so darn rude - they should get jobs in another profession, one which doesn?t involve dealing with people. I have cancelled two appointments recently because of this. I?m sure others do too. Some medical receptionists must cost their employers a lot of money in lost business. Only problem is, they will never know.

[injuryupdate]

As this is an 'open' Forum, it is great to have honest comments about experiences in the sports medicine system. At the moment we have a fairly relaxed policy with respect to moderation (i.e. posts appear as you write them without needing to be screened) and if those using the Forum follow basic rules of decency, we can keep this policy going.

One major rule is that if we see a comment that could be defamatory we will be obliged to delete it. It is OK to say that you used a certain surgeon, for example, and didn't get a good result, or even that the bedside manner wasn't what you would have liked. However, no one can call a specific professional an a-hole or the like.

The comment about the receptionist of a specific surgeon, listed above, is getting very close to the bone (pardon the pun), but is just permissible because it doesn't identify an individual, as each clinic has stacks of receptionists.

It is a worthy issue to remember that sports medicine professionals tend to market themselves on their individual names and as a result the top surgeons, for example, are in very high demand. Because lots of people have posted great comments about Julian Feller (and it can only help his reputation) you can imagine that he is an example of a popular surgeon where demand is outstripping supply. He can only operation on a limited number of people per week and see a certain number of people per week. The reception staff are the meat in the sandwich with respect to the number of people who would like to see a top-name surgeon and those who actually make it to first base. Surgeons deal with their popularity by ever-increasing their fees into new levels of the ozone layer, and having front door lists and back door lists (a bit like popular nightclubs). If you have a referral from Dr Bloggs saying please see patient X about their knee problem, full stop, then this is not going to get past the front door waiting list, which may be 2-3 months for a popular surgeon. You can call a receptionist whatever you like, but she is just following clinic and surgeon policy if you have a random referral and the waiting list is whatever she tells you.

The way to get on the back-door list is to get a referral from a reputable source (i.e. sports physician who the surgeon might trust is good at diagnosis) along the following lines: Please see patient X, who has torn his/her ACL last weekend. He/she would specifically like to see surgeon Y because he/she knows that surgeon Y has a special interest in ACL reconstruction. He/she has private health insurance and is keen to get a reconstruction as soon as possible to return for next year's season.

If you can get a referral like this, from a reliable source, and fax it to the clinic, then you will make it on the back-door list. Guess what - surgeons make lots of money doing ACL recos on patients with private health and they are going to want as many in the door as possible. However, if they don't know you or your diagnosis from a bar of soap then you can cop the waiting time.

Remember too that all surgeons have their failures (JF has had a recent high profile spectacular success with an ACL reco but also has had one of his AFL player recos re-tear as well). Generally the high profile surgeons get good results but not always. Perhaps you can have a go at the RACS for not training enough sports medicine orthopaedic specialists, and our state governments for our public hospitals having waiting lists which are too long.

Remember that like any other industry, the top dog (the surgeon) is raking in the cash, the poor receptionist, who might be on a decent pay by industry standards, is not getting nearly the same amount but cops a disproportionate amount of abuse from the dissatsfied public.

There is a bit of a game in getting an appointment with the surgeon of your choice, but it's worth learning how to play it. And by all means, if the receptionist really is that rude, then you can take you custom elsewhere and hopefully market forces will correct the problem. If a surgeon stops being busy because no one can stand the front desk staff, then sooner or later the problem will need to get corrected.

[Unregistered]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the time that you have taken to make your comments but they seem to relate more to the earlier post rather than the one I just made.

In making my comment I was very careful not to name indivduals or use swear words, so as not to defame or offend. I apologise if my comments were somehow still too offensive.

I linked my comment with the ?Melbourne knee specialists? comment only because of the person?s apparent experience with rude reception staff (I remembered reading the comment some time ago), no other reason. (I don?t live in Melbourne).

My comment was purely about the attitude and interpersonal skills of some medical reception staff (some are awesome no matter what) and had nothing to do with getting in to see top surgeons.

Of my two recent experiences (both during the last fortnight), one was with the receptionist of a local, suburban ?no name? gp; the other was one of the many receptionists at a top clinic (at which I did manage to gain ?back door entrance? for surgery).

On the first occasion (local gp), I simply rang to see when my gp next had a free slot (I was in no hurry to see her); on the second (top clinic), I already had a post op review appointment and was simply ringing to check if payment for the surgery was required prior to the appointment (there no indication on the invoice). Both queries were made politely and neither deserved the rude response received. Perhaps I was unlucky and someone had just chewed their ear off and they felt a need to take it out on someone. I can appreciate that they probably deal with some difficult people on a daily basis but I would hope that someone in that position would identify more effective means of dealing with their aggravation rather than blasting the next hapless patient who is simply making an simple and polite enquiry. Is that too much to ask? Patients have rights too.

[Unregistered]

Injuryupdate,

I was glad that you made that post because it was exactly how I felt. Medical receptionists have it pretty tough, I dont envy their jobs at all, and what we need to realise is that like everyone else, they are under pressures that we as patients arent aware of.

If you want your first preference for surgeon, then perhaps you should consider private health insurance. It got me in to see my preferred surgeon within 2 weeks of seeing the Sports medico. And Im more then happy with the outcome!

[Unregistered]

Injuryupdate,

I was glad that you made that post because it was exactly how I felt. Medical receptionists have it pretty tough, I dont envy their jobs at all, and what we need to realise is that like everyone else, they are under pressures that we as patients arent aware of.

If you want your first preference for surgeon, then perhaps you should consider private health insurance. It got me in to see my preferred surgeon within 2 weeks of seeing the Sports medico. And Im more then happy with the outcome!

Hi,

I'm not sure if you read my post directly above yours, from your response it seems that you may not have.

As per my comment above - my post has nothing to do with getting into see top surgeons and everything to do with simple politeness and understanding - from both sides. (I have private health insurance and I know how to "play the game". I also got into see my preferred surgeon within 2 weeks, the surgery was completed one week later and I am more than happy with the outcome).

The two responses to my post yesterday (I did not make the original post about the receptionist in Melbourne) are valid responses to the original post about the receptionist in Melbourne but not to my comment (I am sorry now that I linked my post to that one as the respondents to date have completely missed the point of my post. My mistake). The responses highlight, however, an important point - sometimes people latch onto one comment, make assumptions about that and respond to that instead of listening to what the current person is actually saying. I am sure that that sometimes happens when you call medical receptionists (and I'm not saying all are rude because they are definitely not). They may have had an irate patient call about something similar and immediately assume that the new conversation - if on the same topic - will go the same way (and respond accordingly) instead of listening to what the person is actually asking or saying.

Life would be more enjoyable for all if both parties could recognise the stresses of the other, listen to what each person is saying rather than making assumptions, and respond like decent human beings.