medical costs in pregnancy

Moonbeam

In Dublin we don't quite have the same luxury and facilities:)

Crea

Went private on my 3.
Was in a room alone on my 1st which I was happy about cause I ended up being in for a week and my baby cried alot so I didn't have the pressure of keeping him quiet for the other mums.
Was in a room with 1 other on my 2nd. May as well have been alone as she didn't pull her curtain accross for the duration of her stay.
Was in a 5 bed ward in PRE-natal on my 3rd so didn't get a wink of sleep with the other mums in labour and nurses doing traces at 4 in the morning. Wasn't too bad on the 2nd night as the mums had the babies and at that stage I was so shattered I would have slept through anything.
Limerick Maternity facilities are a joke.

Ludo

bored and tired wrote: »

In Corks new maternity hospital, you have access to scans, consultants physios etc all through your pregnancy publically, albeit you may have to wait for a few hours to be seen, All the hospital wards are 2 beds and have ensuites, there are consultants, theatre staff, anaesathists on all the time 24/7,

Not true. There are single rooms there, semi private and the general wards have 4 beds. Going private though does not guarantee you a private room though if they all happen to be full already.

bored and tired wrote: »

Anyway for those of you first timers, check out the hospitals in your area and dont feel presurised into going private, the public care system in my experience was excellent and every eventuallity, every prolem or complication is catered for, in fact while i was in hospital a baby was airlifted to dublin, and her mother taken by ambulance the next day, now how much would that have cost if she had gone private??

erm...nothing! Whether the mother is a private or public patient is irrelevant to the above scenario. Our two were in NICU for 2 weeks and the wife was a private patient. Made no difference whatsoever to the cost with regard to care for the baby once born.

Again I cant understand how someone here quotes 8500 for private care. The price for twins in Cork was 2 grand (much less when tax claim and VHI claim taken into account). Is Dublin really that much more expensive?

That was well worth it for us for the comfort of seeing the same consultant who knew us all the time (except for the birth as it was an emergency c-section) and was able to know what was going on with us all the way through, avoiding mad queues in the public section and the comfort of a private room when the boys arrived.

I wonder have they got tvs in the CUMH yet though?

bored and tired

off course they have semi /private rooms in Cork, all hospitals do other wise why would we all have vhi and bupa as well as paying PRSI

my sister had her boy in cuh, she went public, when i went to visit her, at least on the floor she was on, all the public wards were 2 beds with ensuites, she did have to spend time queing to see a doctor at her clinic visits, but that didnt really bother her. i went public in the Eirnville, and if im honest im sorry that its gone as the treatment i got from them as a public patient was second to none, my sister would say the same of the cuh,

If people want to go private thats there choice, but the start of this thread seemed to be scaremongering that you wont get proper care unless you go private, and that if you do go private you end up paying thousands in consultant fees and more again if there is complications.

The op didnt say if they were going public or private, and publically the cost is zero. Inferring that they have to go private for any type of adequate care and have 8K in the bank for any complications is scaremongering,

Hotblack Desiato

Moonbeam wrote: »

In Dublin we don't quite have the same luxury and facilities:)

Exactly. Whatever about quality of care, going semi-private was worth every cent just to not to have to sit in the Coombe public waiting room for hours on end at every appointment.

Nevyn

The public wards in the rotunda range from 6 bed to 10 beds.
After my experience in a 10 bed ward when I had my first I went semi private.

SerialComplaint

MojoMaker wrote: »

The BS around private care really boiled my piss when I was actually in the situation and realised it's not all it's cracked up to be, that the care in public hospitals is the same regardless, and for 90% of couples the attendance of a *consultant* during pregnancy is irrelevant.

The problem is that at the start of the pregnancy, you don't know whether you're in the 90% (consultant irrelevant) or the 10% (consultant very important) bracket.

My wife had a very difficult pregnancy with 3 or 4 emergency admissions and 20 nights in Holles St prior to the birth, and having the same consultant for all checkups available to the on-call doctors was very important for us.

oh well , okay

Just a quick note - might be useful to someone...

My wife and I live just outside Arklow and we had decided to go semi private in Holles St. for our first child . When we visited our local GP we were advised that if we registered as semi private we would be unable to have the scans in our local ( public ) clinic but would have to travel to Holles St , a 2 hour round trip each time . We were told to register as public then change it to semi private closer to the birth , this allowed us to use our local clinic for the scans which saved us hours of travelling plus we got the same consultant every time .

beazee

Hi all.
I am wondering if thats the right place to post my thoughts? Could ye shed some light on the topic? I would be much easier to accept when explained clearly.

My wife is 31 weeks pregnant, she's on Maternity Scheme (combined GP + hospital visits). She had her GP visit last week. Instead of GP she was appointed by the nurse there, had her blood pressure measured up and weight checked. That was all, 5 minutes and off.

But something wasn't right for the last few days. Some kind of sharp pain on the right side of her tummy. She's having her appointment at the hospital scheduled Friday week. Rang the hospital yesterday: "should be all right, he is taking his position head down, visit your GP, have your urine tested". So she went...

And few questions I found hard to find the answers for:

1) Maternity Scheme is being paid from our taxes. What is GP really paid for? For blood pressure and weight only? Or it is much more actually? Anyone knows how much are they really been paid per Maternity Scheme patient?

2) What is the GP appointment agenda? Do sb have a list of what tests should be carried out?

3) Where is the line between "covered by the Scheme" and "covered from your pocket"?

So she went... been there yesterday. Had a visit with GP (suprisingly!! not just 5 mins), urine test shown too many leucocytes (what means infection), had some drugs prescribed and issued with E50 receipt to be paid.
When asked why was told that Maternity Scheme appointment took place last week and this time it's her private visit...

Who's being right?

Myself convinced that GP maternity care is being covered by my taxes and whatever pain or infection while pregnant should be covered as well?

Or is it practice owner telling me there were no problems last visit (Maternity Scheme) and what is now is a private and fully payable?

How could they now if everything was all right when she was only appointed by some nurse who took pressure and weigh scale readings?
I am going to visit other practices around and ask for their say. Should Medical Council be contacted? Or is it me - a cheapskate?

Should we change the practice? Or it is better to leave it as it is for the next 9-10 weeks?

The only leaflet on Maternity Scheme is telling me: "Care in respect of illnesses which are co-incidental with, but not related to your pregnancy does not form part of the Scheme."
Is vag infection related to pregnancy? Me thinks it is. Who can confirm that?
Thanks for shedding some light on the topic.

Moonbeam

The gp was well within his rights.
Only the official ante natal appoinments are covered any other visits outside of this are not.
It is pretty stupid as you would think the health system would want to look after pregnany women.
Some gps are nice and do not charge.


Normally the doctor feels tummy,checks urine and listens to babys heart at each visit.

beazee

Moonbeam wrote: »

The gp was well within his rights. (...)
Normally the doctor feels tummy,checks urine and listens to babys heart at each visit.

OK. I get that visit outside scheduled appointments may be (and usually is) paid extra. It's business - have to pay the bills.

But may last scheduled appointment be treated as full/regular?
No doctor. No sampling. Just BP and weight. 5 mins and off.

I keep wondering if there was only urine sampling carried out that time - they might be able find something already - so the consultation + drug prescription would be covered by HSE.

friday04

HI All, My wife has health insurance with Quinn and it says that she has maternity cover of 4k. I think its essential plus scheme thru work.. Does that also cover consultants fees if we go semi private. I know that we will have to pay for scans but Im not sure if quinn will cover the consultants fees.. they say that we need to pick a consultant thats approved by them.. Thanks in advance bcause im totaly confused.

Moonbeam

For vhi it comes under anti natal care.

Mom2Be

friday04 wrote: »

HI All, My wife has health insurance with Quinn and it says that she has maternity cover of 4k. I think its essential plus scheme thru work.. Does that also cover consultants fees if we go semi private. I know that we will have to pay for scans but Im not sure if quinn will cover the consultants fees.. they say that we need to pick a consultant thats approved by them.. Thanks in advance bcause im totaly confused.

Hiya,

No as far as i know the consultant fees are the only thing that isnt covered. It is 7 yrs since i went semi private on my daughter but i dont think it has changed. I am 38 weeks now and opted for public this time due to the cost of consulants fees.
Care is no different (so far anyway) apart from longer waiting time for clinic appointments.
Only thing is i was in a semi private room (2 beds) last time and other bed was empty so had a room to myself which was lovely.
This time round it will be a public ward with 5 beds but please god everything will go to plan and ill be back home after 24 hrs

Skadi

I think the level of combined care you get from your GP really depends on the GP.

I am currently going through a high risk pregnancy and am now up to the CUMH every monday. My GP told me to call into him regularly so that he can be kept informed.

I am going public. While I might not see my main consultant every time if there is anything strange with my blood tests or symptoms, the consultant that I am seeing goes into the main consultant to see what she thinks. This is standard practice in CUMH. Every time I have seen the consultant I have always had a mini-scan. For me personally I find it reassuring to be seen by different consultants as it means I can get their opinion on my situation and I know that it is unlikely that something will be missed as more than one person is looking over my notes and test results.

On my last pregnancy I also went public. We lost the baby due to premature labour. My husband asked that I be put into a private room and the hospital agreed straight away. There is nothing I could fault about the level of care that I have received. Yes, sometimes waiting times are annoying but it seems that certain times of the day are more busier than others so I tend to ask for an early appointment or a later appointment so that I am not waiting too long.