She reluctantly agreed to be admitted to BRH, where they took her to the children’s ward, instead of the general ward. “I went into a four-bed room with an elderly lady and there was one bathroom,” she said.

“I pay good money for private cover, so I shouldn’t have had to stay like that.

“Since having my heart operation it has made me more susceptible to diseases.”

When she asked to be put in a single room, she was told there were three single rooms available in the children’s ward. “They put me in one of them but said if a child came in then I would have to move,” she said.

By the time she went into the single room, it was about 4pm Sunday, so Ms McGowan asked for a sleeping pill to help her sleep in the strange bed. The nurse told her she would have to wait and speak to the doctor, who would make his rounds that afternoon.

“But a doctor never came and they didn’t say anything to me,” she said.

“When I told them I really needed something to help me sleep the nurse just told me to close my eyes and try and sleep. I asked the nurse if she could go to A and E (accident and emergency) and get me a sleeper from the doctor on call, but she said she couldn’t.”

By 3am she still could not get to sleep, so asked again if anyone could go and get her a sleeping pill. “She (the nurse) told me it was not possible and said ‘can’t you go just one night without a sleeping tablet’. Although I was tired I was in a strange place and had been through an ordeal, so I couldn’t sleep.”

She decided to ring a friend to pick her up and take her home so she could at least get some sleep, despite still being attached to an intravenous drip. But by then it was about 3.30am, she could not rouse her friend.

After that the nurse finally went to A and E to get her a sleeping pill.

She got to sleep about 5am, but was woken at 8am for breakfast. “I got some more sleep, but the next thing I know the door burst open and in walked the doctor with about four interns,” she said. “The doctor just looked at me and said I was to leave this morning.”

When Ms McGowan told the doctor her friend would not pick her up until afternoon, he said it was “tough luck” and “I could wait in the hospital’s lounge and eat in the cafeteria”.

Before she could leave a trainee doctor told Ms McGowan she was sorry for the way she had been treated. She urged Ms McGowan to make an official complaint, which Ms McGowan did. She expects to wait about 30 days to hear back about the complaint.

“By this time I was sobbing my heart out,” she said. “I felt humiliated. You don’t just come into a room and do that in front of people I was tired and had been through a lot and they just kicked me out.

“It was my mistake, I should have just gone private, but they never said anything about arranging another doctor for me. I would sooner have heart surgery again then ever go through that again.”

Ms McGowan said the doctor who treated her “needs to go back to university and learn some compassion. He could have handled it a lot better. I know he would have been working long shifts and would be tired, but he shouldn’t treat people like that.”

When she got back to Collie hospital, she said the doctors were fantastic.

“The doctors in this town are a blessing. I made them all chocolate cake to say thank you because they actually care for their patients.”

Dr Neil Kling, who treated Ms McGowan, said it was normal for patients like Ms McGowan to be admitted to BRH. “There is no intern cover at St John’s.”

Ms McGowan was told the night before she was discharged that she would have to leave the next day. “The bed was needed. I was very direct with her about it, but I was not horrible, I should have just let the hospital manager deal with it,” he said. “The hospital does have a bed problem, there needs to be more beds.”

Bunbury Regional Hospital operations manager Susan Kay said Bunbury and all district hospitals would accept patients who elected to be treated as private patients, but this also required the treating doctor to be prepared to accept the patient as their private patient.

“In Bunbury, the vast majority of private patients are treated at St John of God (SJOG) Hospital Bunbury, and the BH has arrangements to assist patients who attend the BH emergency department to transfer to SJOG,” she said.

“We apologise to this patient as it does not appear to have occurred in this instance.”

Ms McGowan said Dr Kling later rang her to apologise for the way he treated her during her stay at the hospital.