Western Sydney Local Health District

My experiences with Westmead’s outpatient eating disorders day treatment program were unacceptable and felt very invalid with the support provided. A lot of the time I attended, I felt that I was just there for containment and not proper treatment for my eating disorder, especially in a day program setting. I was a patient 3 times before going with private health insurance and felt like my eating disorder and mental health deteriorated. I felt like I wasn’t cared for and exacerbated distress - psychological and physiological. The staff (not naming names in particular) dismissed me and had informed others to steer clear from me even after discharge when going into private inpatient. This made me feel like an outcast to ever re-engage with the service and like they had set me up with a negative reputation. The meal plans are not sufficient and distressing where it came to retention from severe starvation. I was not told how to manage the retention in a healthy manner and was painful, causing further psychological distress. Other former clients who I have spoken to also have negative experiences from the service and discharged due to not being able to provide appropriate services to meet individual needs, causing psychological and physical complications to the individual’s health and progress. Other dieticians in private settings agree that the meal plans with Westmead outpatient are insufficient and below refeeding. Because I was connected to a private service, my medical monitoring was left to my other treating team instead of at the clinic where everyone else were monitored. Even though my other psychologist Treated eating disorders, medical monitoring was not apart of my sessions, and Westmead knew this, meaning if I lost weight or my bloods we compromised, that would not have been an issue for them. They are also against they idea of private heal insurance if you want to seek private inpatient or outpatient treatment away from their service. They try to talk you out of it to maintain you as a number in their system. Even if that is not the caW, it is how many of us have felt. They even stated to me, even if I didn’t eat at home and only the 1 meal, 4 days a week, that was fine. I have heard from other patients that went to private inpatient, that they had been kicked out from Westmead due to not making progress. I don’t think I would go back public for the treatment of my eating disorder anytime soon. Insurance had made a difference for me in addressing psycho education, dietetic and nutrition sessions, proper meal planning which meet Australian dietetic guidelines for the treatment for eating disorders, regular reviews of meal plans and care plans, distress tolerance skills, medical monitoring as well as regular psychiatric reviews.this was not provided with Westmead outpatient. I am not inclined to go back public after experiencing and being treated with fairness and respect in a private setting. Recently when I went to Westmead to support someone else, I was dismissed of and felt outcasted. This made me felt like I wouldn’t be welcomed back, even though I did not do anything to provoke unfair treatment from the team.

I can't thank the beautiful staff at Nepean Hospital enough. My simple surgery went wrong and I spent a few months in there. They work so hard and are abused at times for things completely out of their control. I would not be here today with out them and if they don't get more staff and funding I fear more people won't be here. They are so misunderstood it's not all about themselves but they know people will suffer if this is not done. I have seen them frustrated but not taking it out on anyone and I think the hospital does so much and gets so much bad publicity. Things do go wrong people make mistakes but they bent over backwards to fix mine and mine was no ones fault just one of things. I will say my initial surgeon and the surgeon that did my emergency operation were brilliant and took such good care of me as did the nurses, wardsman,cleaners,kitchen staff,admin staff and cleaners . They deserve the resources to do their jobs efficiently and I will be forever grateful to them . They really care about the people they help ud83dude0a

A government run facilitie that offers many health related services.

Doing good job for people .