Surgeon

1. My GP handed me a list of three. I asked who she'd send her own mother to and she wrote a fourth name on the back. Eleven-week wait instead of two.

2. My sister's a theatre nurse at a western Sydney hospital. The surgeon with the five-star profile is the one they see back for revisions.

3. I asked two surgeons their annual volume and complication rate. One gave me numbers in four seconds; the other said outcomes vary. That was the whole decision.