Leading breast surgeon hits out at people reporting her home helper during lockdown

A breast cancer surgeon has lashed her “difficult” neighbours for reporting her hired help during lockdown, claiming “it’s all become very nasty”.

Dr Chantel Thornton, pictured with husband Srecko Lorbek, is put out at people reporting her home support person during lockdown. Picture: Josie Hayden

The doorman (they used to have one at the Windsor who knew all the pollies dashing over for a drink) usually exudes a welcoming but deferential calm.

In a uniform of woollen greatcoat, piped trousers and white gloves, they open car doors, carry luggage and are indispensable to the smooth running of high-rise towers in Spring St or the apartment buildings of tree-lined St Kilda Rd.

But many high-living residents are finding service is scarce during Covid.

People paying out $70,000 a year for concierge and other services, are over it.

None more so than Melbourne’s most glamorous boob doctor. And, no, we are not talking implants, divorce bolt-ons, or that sneaky post-baby lift.

Dr Chantel Thornton is our leading oncoplastic breast surgeon, working tirelessly into the night, when operating tables are free, to help hundreds of cancer patients dealing with the most unimaginable challenge of their lives.

With a killer smile in killer heels, Dr Thornton is in designer wear and bling when she is not in her pink scrubs.

And the good doctor and her husband, car dealer to the stars Srecko Lorbek, are done with rude and lazy staff.

Breast surgeon Dr Chantel Thornton. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Dr Thornton told Page 13 she is constantly being reported to authorities for having a support person, although he has a worker’s permit.

The support person also works as a nanny for one-year-old baby Thornton, who has his own Instagram page.

“The building I live in, they are very difficult,” says Dr Thornton.

“They haven’t wanted to allow our support person in, the person who helps look after our home and looks after Thornton and with the cleaning and helps me out.

“They have been reporting him to the authority every time he comes.

“Some nights I’m out all night operating. I need help in the home. I’m working all day and operating all night and I can’t do it without support people.

“I get home every night, ringing the Victoria Police and ringing the Department of Human Services, who all say he has a valid reason and it’s fine.

“This person has been with us for 17 years, so he has come to our house twice a week. It’s nothing new.

“But it’s all become very nasty.”

Dr Thornton says her views are shared by many of her well-heeled friends, who say the concierge industry has gone to the dogs.

“It’s not new. I’ve been speaking to my girlfriends in Melbourne. It’s happening a lot.

“The concierges don’t want to do their work. They want to sit out in a room and don’t want to answer the door. If a courier comes they won’t answer the door.

“So I get phone calls when I’m operating saying, ‘We are just here to drop something off, but no one is at home.’

“I’m in the operating theatre. I live in an apartment building. We pay $70,000 a year to let someone in.”

It never happened at the Windsor.