The coombe public and semi private differences

paddylonglegs

Hi folks,
Hopefully I'm posting in the right forum, maybe you could share your experiences. We are looking at the coombe for our second, as they have a satellite consultation in Naas which is handy for us.

We are considering semi private in the coombe but we were wondering if there is actually any difference when it comes to having the baby. I have heard that if it is very busy (I'm. Sure which is most of the time) you will not be guaranteed a semi private ward/bed. This doesn't really make sense if you have paid for it?
Or is there even a difference between public and semi private?
Sorry if I seem a bit naive, I'm really not sure how it works in these cases and I can't talk to anyone that has had their baby in the coombe, so go easy on me!

bovril

When you go semi private with the Coombe you pay the semi private fee. I think it's 700-800 (can't remember exactly) and then you pay for scans up to a maximum of 400 approx. So your scan costs might not reach that amount then you pay lower and if you have to have many scans you never pay more than that. Now for the confusing part, the bed choice. You get a separate form for requesting your bed type. You can choose public, semi or private if you wish. Your bed choice may be covered by health insurance if you have that. You may be covered for a private bed even though you've chosen and paid for semi private care. Yes the hospital is very busy and it's likely you may not get a private room if you are in for a short stay. If you're in for 3+nights you have a slightly better chance of a private room maybe a few days into your stay but it really depends on how busy the hospital is. Ring the hospital and also ring your health provider. I had to as I didn't understand the bed choice at all. Both are very helpful and will explain everything.

I've no experience with the satellite clinic, my appointments were with the hospital and from what I could see the difference between semi private and public is that you *may* have a little less wait in the semi private clinic and each clinic visit you see the registrar or consultant from a team in semi private. I think with public you sometimes see a midwife for clinic visits.

angeldelight

paddylonglegs wrote: »

I have heard that if it is very busy (I'm. Sure which is most of the time) you will not be guaranteed a semi private ward/bed. This doesn't really make sense if you have paid for it?
Or is there even a difference between public and semi private?

If you think about it they can't guarantee you a SP bed, they don't know how many women are going to be in the hospital on any particular night. However if you are SP and there is a SP bed you'll get it. I've just had a baby in the Coombe and while I was private my health insurance only covered SP for a bed so I was in a SP ward before delivery - it was a six bed ward but only had four beds in it so it was nice and airy and quiet. My understanding is that the public ward has more beds.

Check what your health insurance covers bed wise as the SP fee you pay is for your care, it's your health insurance that pays for your bed

elly123

I had my son in the Coombe two years ago, i initially was going semi private but switched to public on my first visit. The ques can be quite long for Public our longest was 2.5hrs but that didn't bother us. We were never in a hurry. I always saw the consultant at every visit and had a mini scan at every visit too. For my hospital stay when i went in i was on a Labour ward with 6 beds. After i had the baby i was in a room on my own for two full days then went into a ward with 4 beds (i actually enjoyed the company of the other ladies) i had a section so i was in the hospital for 4 days.
I know everyone has different experiences and different preferences, but for me i would definitely go public again in the Coombe.
In my opinion if your reason for going semi private is only down to what bed you might get i would go public. The care from the midwives is no different they treat everyone the same. I found the midwives brilliant on the ward and very helpful.

mirrorwall14

I've just been public in the coomve in January. Prenatal the care was just phenomenal for free! I was in and out a lot, saw my consultant and their team so much that I knew them all by delivery even though the junior docs changed at the start of January. Labour was well managed. Post natal was a bit of a nightmare but it really is staffing levels, exhaustion and noisy babies. Even on a private room I imagine you are still going to hear them-some lungs for something that small and it could well be your own!

I will definitely go public again, I was very happy with the care and for the sake of 48hrs on a ward of 5, I can handle that

How Strange

The public wards in the coombe are quite small compared to the other maternity hospitals in Dublin - typically 4 beds and maximum 6. It can be noisy at times but overall I think I'd save the fee for semi private and go public if I were going again. I've been public twice; the first with 6 beds and the second in a 6 bed ward with 3 other mums.

Immy

As this is your second I would look at how your first pregnancy and delivery were. If pregnancy had no problems and delivery was natural then I would go public, if you had a section on no1 I would go sp. As there is a good chance you will have another section and hence will stay longer in hospital.

I was sp in the Coombe twice and was very happy with it.

havana

I went public in the coombe and couldn't fault it. Was in a four bed ward- 2 bumps and 2 babies. It was a very positive experience.

Penny Dreadful

I went semi private in the Coome last time (baby is currently 8months old) and while my pregnancy was fine and so I saw midwives all the way I never once met a consultant or a doctor higher than an SHO.
This was ok until I had some issues post delivery with passing the placenta and a reaction to the oxytocin.
These issues carried on for 3 months post delivery and again I never once saw a consultant or felt that theses issues were taken seriously and in the end I had to state a sit in.
As it turned out I did need an operation.
I don't think that this issue would have go on for so long with private care.

I am 5 weeks pregnant now and I am going fully private in the Coombe this time. For me the peace of mind is worth it.
Also (and I know a private room is not guaranteed) I had to stay for 5 days post delivery and was in a 4 bed semi private room. I'd have swapped for my own room in a heartbeat. The privacy for visiting, own shower, you can cry without someone pulling the curtains open ..... All worth the money IMO.

traineeacc

Same penny, went semi private on my first and fully private on second recently. To be honest I don't see the value in semi private in the Coombe. I did have a pregnancy with a lot of issues and still didn't see a consultant as much as I would have liked

Penny Dreadful

traineeacc wrote: »

Same penny, went semi private on my first and fully private on second recently. To be honest I don't see the value in semi private in the Coombe. I did have a pregnancy with a lot of issues and still didn't see a consultant as much as I would have liked

Yep, and throwing in the cost of the scans too it pushes the cost up anyway. Did you get a room of your own the time you went privately? Who did you attend if you don't mind me asking?

traineeacc

I did get a room of my own, bear in mind the Coombe are renovating their private rooms so 10 of them are out of action until January I think. I was lucky I was in over Easter and it was quiet so got an en suite room, they aren't all ensuite. I believe the previous week though their was private patients allocated in public ward. I went with Prof Deirdre Murphy. Can't speak highly enough of my experience was costly but well worth i feel

Penny Dreadful

traineeacc wrote: »

I did get a room of my own, bear in mind the Coombe are renovating their private rooms so 10 of them are out of action until January I think. I was lucky I was in over Easter and it was quiet so got an en suite room, they aren't all ensuite. I believe the previous week though their was private patients allocated in public ward. I went with Prof Deirdre Murphy. Can't speak highly enough of my experience was costly but well worth i feel

I'm booked in with Deirdre Murphy too. A friend of mine had twins about 10 weeks after my little girl was born and she attended Deirdre and has only the best things to say about her too.
I know I might not get a room of my own and over all I'm more concerned with the continuity of consultant care this time.
There were a few women through my semi private ward during my 5 day stay who had requested a private room but didn't get one immediately. What really got to me the last time was:
1) the bloody heat. It was crazy
2) the bed to my right seemed to be populated with firstly a very loud woman who had no sense of appropriate boundaries and then by a woman who was being induced but snored so so so loudly the night she was brought in that she made the babies wake up crying.
3) I understand that babies are born at all times of the day and night and so the transfer down to the ward post delivery takes place accordingly but the noise that was made during this time was unreal. I don't think I slept more than 40 minutes (and not in a row either) one night.

angeldelight

I'm just out of the Coombe having gone private and while I was lucky enough to have a private en suite room as traineeacc says they are currently renovating the private ward so a lot of the rooms are out of action. There are private rooms on some of the other wards as well though. My consultant was brilliant - I think part of the decision when to have a second one will depend on when I have the cash gathered up for her!

traineeacc

Same here, I considered my own room an added bonus. She was great and has a lovely manner. My 2 experiences while I had the same complications were night and day apart. Feel free to pm if you have any questions. I have recommend her to so many people and it was my own gp who recommended here in the first place.

Penny Dreadful

traineeacc wrote: »

Same here, I considered my own room an added bonus. She was great and has a lovely manner. My 2 experiences while I had the same complications were night and day apart. Feel free to pm if you have any questions. I have recommend her to so many people and it was my own gp who recommended here in the first place.

Thank you. I could well take you up on that offer yet. My appointment is on June 9th and I'll be 9 weeks then. Last time as a semi private I sent off my boring form when I was 4 weeks pregnant and yet still didn't get an appointment until I was 12+6.
As I said the pregnancy was text book perfect as far as the baby was concerned and my only complication then was SPD but that's nothing to do with the cover I opted for.
It really is the post pregnancy care I'm most bothered by for now so already I feel it's money well spent.
I get €400 back from my insurance company and then the Med 1 too so it will cost €2600 I think ultimately not €3800

angeldelight

I was with a different consultant but similarly have nothing bad to say about her.

It was freakishly quiet when I was in, I was on a semi private antenatal ward for 2 nights being induced and apart from two short spells was the only one in the ward of 4 beds!

traineeacc

You pay in instalments too which helps too! Her apt days are Tuesdays and she is reasonably flexible on times on those days I found.

I found semi private any issues at all I was admitted and could be for days until somebody made a decision with private she knew with a small one at home I didn't want to be admitted so she managed it for me knowing that.

Just and FYI the big scan is additional all to to her fee but you do get the mini scan every visit, the private clinic is also so much more relaxed it is separate to main hospital.

peter_dublin

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Hi folks,
Hopefully I'm posting in the right forum, maybe you could share your experiences. We are looking at the coombe for our second, as they have a satellite consultation in Naas which is handy for us.

We have two and are in Naas and used the clinic in Naas General. To be honest you would be wasting your money. In both cases for her appointments in Naas my wife would stroll up the town and be in and out in max 30 minutes if not less and the times I did attend with her it was very quiet and in nice modern part of the hospital with no real wait versus the Coombe itself which is insane.

The only times I remember attending the Coombe was for a scan at 20 weeks I believe and for the delivery. All other care was via GP or Naas Clinic. In both cases she was home under the Domino scheme just after 24 hours and had no issues with the short period she was on the public wards.

If you had to attend the Coombe I would say go for it but the Domino scheme and satellite clinic on your doorstep render it pointless in my opinion.

lazygal

I didn't attend the Coombe but I did go fully private and from anecdotes I would either go public/midwives clinic or fully private. I found the care better having had a consistent relationship with my consultant, and having had to have c sections I couldn't have stayed on the public or semi private wards. I found the care in both very hit and miss and I wasn't happy at all. If we couldn't afford the fees I'd have had to put up with it but it was money well spent for us. Semi private doesn't seem to get you a whole lot.

lollpop

I was public in the Coombe and found it great. There is no way of predicting what will happen with beds. I was in for 2 nights before labour and 3 after. Beforehand, there were 2 of us in a 6 bed ward. Afterwards there were 4 of us in a 6 bed ward. I'd definitely go public again.

paddylonglegs

Thanks for the reports so far folks. I'm reading through them all, lots of different opinions but good to get an insight 😊