Elderly 'moved from hospital beds' for Kylie op
Elderly heart patients were moved from their beds to clear the way for Australian pop star Kylie Minogue as she underwent breast cancer surgery, it was reported today.
Minogue was given eight out of 18 rooms in the hospital’s cardiac ward, apparently chosen because it was the most secluded area of the building, The Herald Sun newspaper said.
The night before she arrived at Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini Hospital in Melbourne, an unspecified number of patients were moved from their beds to make way for Minogue and several members of her family, the paper said.
A doctor, who was not named, told the paper the incident was “distressing and very inappropriate”.
“Several people were severely inconvenienced. I was very surprised that eight beds were given to one patient with a non-cardiac condition,” the doctor was quoted as saying.
But Jackie Meiers, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said no patients were compromised because of the singer’s stay. Calls to the hospital management went unanswered today.
Minogue recently celebrated her 37th birthday with family and friends in Melbourne, her home town, where she is recovering after undergoing surgery on May 20 to remove a tumour from her breast.
Minogue was in Melbourne to perform her Showgirl tour when the cancer was diagnosed days before the surgery. The Australian and Asian legs of her tour have been postponed indefinitely.
