I had mine within about 20 minutes of requesting it.
I don't want to start a whole debate on public vs private, but anecdotally it seems to me that it often takes longer in a public hospital. I personally know 3 women who had them in public hospitals and had to wait anywhere between 2 and 5 hours. The one who had to wait 5 hours was given 2 shots of pethidine in the meantime and when her baby finally arrived she had to spend the first night in SCN due to her LO being very groggy from the pethidine. The other couple of women I know who have had them in a private hospital all had it within an hour....

