Going Public?

[nicolejoy]

from what I heard about the cost of private care at QMH, it's comparable to that at the other private hospitals. It's not the room that is expensive, but it's the fact that IF you are in a private room, you need to pay for ALL the medical expenses as well rather than just paying for the room. The bill can be around $60-100K or so (from what I've heard, not from my experience)... Personally I'd rather go to a private hospital in that case, unless I had reason to suspect that the baby might need NICU.

I wish that QM had the "special accommodation wards" that Pamela Youde has - where it's a smaller shared room for only about $7000 all up - but there's not that option at QM...

 

[blessed]

thanks nicolejoy, maybe we will do more research on the costing before making decision. thought it was only the room charges that make the difference @ QMH. in this case maybe regular ward it will be... just that we went to check out the public ward & found that there is not much privacy with up to 8 moms + babies in the same small room only divided by curtains.

currently there is no major reason to suspect possibility of NICU for the baby, pray that everything will go well and will just trust in HIM for he has given us this special gift.

 

[nicolejoy]

I actually wanted to go to PY and was SO looking forward to it. My first was born at QM and you're right, there's not much privacy and it's NOISY as ANYTHING, 24 hrs a day. Babies crying, stuff going on. I didn't hardly sleep at all and didn't feel like I could start to recover until I got home.

This time, there are medical complications with the baby and she has a fairly high chance of needing NICU. That is the ONLY reason why I'm going back to QM... I'm actually not looking forward to it, but I know it's in the best interests of the baby... so I'll cope with it

I know people who use someone else's address to get into QM instead of their regional hospital (I did that with my first pregnancy actually, since I knew nothing about PY at the time). I would TOTALLY do that to get into PY instead though, if I had a normal pregnancy and didn't live in that district anyway... I've heard such great things about it...

I don't know if any of the other regional hospitals have those kind of arrangements, where you can have a smaller room and only pay JUST for the room costs and not the associated medical expenses... PY is the only one I know of that does that... But even if you can't get into the smaller rooms, SURELY it'd have to be quieter than QM at least!!

(please forgive all my caps - I'm not yelling, I'm just too lazy to use italics )

 

[carang]

from what I heard about the cost of private care at QMH, it's comparable to that at the other private hospitals. It's not the room that is expensive, but it's the fact that IF you are in a private room, you need to pay for ALL the medical expenses as well rather than just paying for the room. The bill can be around $60-100K or so (from what I've heard, not from my experience)... Personally I'd rather go to a private hospital in that case, unless I had reason to suspect that the baby might need NICU.

I wish that QM had the "special accommodation wards" that Pamela Youde has - where it's a smaller shared room for only about $7000 all up - but there's not that option at QM...

not only that.... they BACK DATE your charges!!! so, if at 8 months, you decide to change to private section at QMH...they will go back and CHARGE YOU FOR ALL of your previous appts!

there is not much difference in cost between matilda and private care at a public hospital

 

[newmother]

I had my baby in Queen Mary and had a very good experience. I found I was in competent hands the whole time. I thought the nurses and the midwives were very helpful. They also encourage breastfeeding and help you get started. It was busy in the room one night, but not so full the next, but I actually found it comforting to have other people around. You still get your own room for labor and I found that more important.

we are expecting our 1st in September and glad to meet everyone here.

have registered at QMH via public side and had my first appointment @ Tsan Yuk earlier this month... we are thinking of moving to the private side of QMH to get a balance for both the medical expertise & privacy, can anyone share with us the private care experience at QMH & approximate cost?

we have limited coverage from insurance, so while everyone is recommending us to go Matilda we would rather use the $$ towards the baby at later stage.

 

[carang]

as stated in umpteen previous posts, i was in QMH 13 times over my two complicated pregnancies. yes, it can be noisy... that's why i ALWAYS recommend earplugs and an eye patch... would not have had a night's sleep otherwise... as it was, i was able to sleep quite well with those two things. oh, yeah, i also took my own pillow!