DOCTOR’S NBN NIGHTMARE
A TOOWOOMBA doctor is fed-up after having waited close to four months for a phone line and internet access.
Dr Fraser Mackenzie, an adult consultant physician, spent 11 years working at a Brisbane hospital before opening his own practice at St Vincent’s Private Hospital at the end of February.
Dr Mackenzie organised his NBN connection through Telstra and requested two phones, a fax line and internet access.
“They indicated they were processing my order on March 1. They actually indicated things were going to be installed at the end of March, which I thought was pretty good,” he said.
“Then that got cancelled and then it was the end of April, and that got cancelled apparently because of the weather.
“Then it was put back to June 12 and they (NBN) just didn’t turn up.”
Dr MacKenzie said if it weren’t for the hospital graciously supplying his new practice with internet access and phone lines, he would have had to go back to Brisbane.
He said he was unable to even print business cards because he did not have permanent contact details.
“The fact that I have to wait four months to get a phone line in a city this size, an hour and a half from Brisbane, it’s appalling,” he said.
“When we were starting up it was a real concern, because any new business needs cash flow and 95 per cent of my billing is done electronically.”
A spokesman for Telstra said the cancellations were NBN’s responsibility.
A spokeswoman for NBN said, despite Dr MacKenzie being told by them he had another appointment to connect his service on June 21, there had been some miscommunication.
The spokeswoman said the address was not ready to order an NBN service, which had now been noted by both Telstra and NBN, therefore the order would be rejected.
“NBN has been dealing with the building services supervisor at St Vincent’s Hospital to identify issues and approve the design of the additional work required to service all suites in the hospital,” she said.
The spokeswoman said a NBN specialist performance expert had since been in contact with Dr MacKenzie to make arrangements to meet on site, so that a field technician could get to the bottom of the issue.