St George Hospital and St George Private Hospital

I am accredited to deliver at both of these hospitals. They are located close to my rooms in Kogarah. I am often asked to compare the two hospitals. Midwifery care at the public hospital and the facilities for dealing with serious medical problems are excellent. The special care nursery (for newborn babies) is well run and there is a paediatric registrar on site 24 hours a day. They will admit babies after 32 weeks pregnancy (if you labour before this you would need to be transferred to a hospital with a neonatal intensive care like Prince of Wales or Royal Prince Alfred). The down side is that it is noisy, you are less likely to get a single room, the rooms are small and the food is not great. I recommend the public hospital for women with serious medical problems or for those without private insurance who are paying to go there as private patients.

St George Private Hospital is just over 10 years old and the rooms are more spacious, you’re more likely to get a single room (though you may have to be in a two bed room for a day or so if it is very busy), the view of Botany Bay from the single rooms is fantastic and the food is reasonable. The nursery is the same ’level’ as the public hospital but will only admit babies after 34 weeks and there is a resident available to look after medical problems with the babies 24 hours a day. The only criticism of the private hospital is that the postnatal care is sometimes not perfect when they are very busy. This is more of an issue with your first baby and they have been trying hard to improve it with the employment of more midwives and a postnatal manager. It is one of the reasons I have employed my own midwife, Sallee, so that she can come and see you while you are in hospital and then follow you up after you go home.

Hurstville Community Hospital

This hospital is comparable in most ways with St George Private Hospital and I deliver about a quarter of my women there. The differences are that it is smaller and more like an old style maternity unit. The rooms are not quite as nice, the view is not as good and the food is variable. On the plus side the postnatal ward are all very experienced. The nursery is similar to the Private Hospital and there is a resident available on site 24 hours a day.

Fertility First Reproductive Health Centre

My wife, Dr Anne Clark, is the founder and Medical Director of Fertility First and we operate together on the patients from Fertility First needing to have surgery for assessment of their tubes and removal of endometriosis. I refer my patients with fertility problems to Fertility First and, in turn, provide pregnancy care for some of the women who conceive after treatment at Fertility First who don’t already have an obstetrician.

Fertility First is situated in Hurstville and has a full range of services for infertility issues. Dr Anne Clark is internationally recognized as an expert on fertility health and well being. She is supported by a highly qualified staff. This includes a full service laboratory for IVF, ICSI, sperm and embryo preparation plus semen analysis including the ground breaking TUNEL Assay for sperm DNA damage. (See the link on our <Resources> page.)