Private VS Public Hospitals what are the pros and cons

[Sugarplum2809]

What where your experiences in the public system?

What's the difference between private and public?

Do you have all your test done in the public hospital and not pay a cent?

:confused:

[susieq1969]

Hi Mia

I'm a private patient going through a public hospital

And nope, I haven't had to pay a cent.

I've got my own midwife and am going through the Birthing Centre at JHH.

Hopefully once bubs is born I can go home if all ok or hopefully they'll have a private room for me.

If you got Private thru the Public system the only thing is there is no guarantee of a private room.

Hope this helps a bit
:)

[Sparrowgal]

I am going private in the public as well. but I have an obstetrician (but you don't have to have one!)

What's the difference?
the private hospital is like a hotel, with nice rooms, nice food, your own room and generally nicer cosmetically than the public. It's really nice if you have an uncomplicated pregnancy.

I chose the public because of the what-if factor. Public hospitals are equipped with emergency and excellent safety systems and doctors are available 24 hours a day on site (whereas at the private they are on call and have to come in if they aren't already at the hospital seeing patients or operating). If there is an emergency complication, like needing blood or an emergency operation i can be taken straight to the operating theatre if need be or someone will come to me on the ward and attend to me immediately.

And yes you can have all your tests done in the public and it will not cost anything :) But remember they will be standard tests, nothing fancy (so no 3d 4d images or anything like that).

But I would recommend that you go private in the public if you have top cover health care. i wouldn't go private in public as a self funded (ie pay for everything) because the costs that way will be huge and I don't think there's much benefit in that.

[Amara]

I gave birth in a public hospital. The midwives were fantastic as was the OB who delivered my bub when he needed a little assistance to come into the world. He was the on duty OB & I'd never met him before but it didn't matter at all.

I also had assistance with every single feed due to breast feeding issues. I don't know anyone IRL who's managed to get that kind of help in a private hospital.

The difference between private and public is that basically in a private hospital you can choose the OB who delivers your bub (if he/she is available at the time of course) and that you usually get your own room.

Everything to do with the actual birth, hospital stay for both myself & bub were free including 5 nights in special care for bub & 3 nights in a 2 bed ward & 2 nights in a single bonding room for me. There were no paed fees either even though he was seen by a few during his stay. That's not usually the case if you are in a private hospital. There are always out of pocket expenses.

Each public hospital is different in regard to tests & scans. Mine didn't provide any scans at all so you had to pay for those & claim them at medicare.

I had my own OB just for appointments. I did this because I wanted to see the one person throughout the pregnancy (due to the extra risks involved at my age, not that any of them eventuated). Because I was giving birth publicly he did not charge a pregnancy management fee, just a small fee per visit most of which I could claim through Medicare.

I'd go public again in a heartbeat & probably wouldn't bother with the OB visits again would just do shared care with a GP.

[HeidiLee]

I went private and loved it. Own OB, own room/ensuite. Much nicer than the public hospital in our area as well.

Most people in public even have to pay for their 12 week scan unless they are high risk - so scan wish there isnt much difference if you only have the norm - which I did.

To give you an idea - we have top cover with MBF and our out of pocket for everything was about $1k. Well worth it.

[ALHmum]

I went private and loved it. My GP made sure I was going to go private cos she's had a lot of problems with some public hospitals here.
And in response to sparrowgirl - private hospitals do have an oncall roster but a lot of privates these days do have a dr on site 24hrs. Mine did simply because they have maternity. But they don't accept a labour before - i think - 32 weeks. Don't quote me. So i guess their complications are less. I know all labours can have their complications though.
We're going to go private with the next one too but not looking forward to the cost involved :thumbsdown:. Hardly any Obs do the private patient in a public hospital here. Very frustrating :(

[garfield13]

We went private & loved it. We mainly went private duee to the longer stay, private room, and own doctor. Our closest public hospital services such a large area, for us it just wasn't a choice for the service you get there.

I think the most important thing is the hospital you choose. Our closest public is just too busy and has a pretty average reputation for maternity, but then the next closest one I have only heard good about. I hear lots about private hosp pushing intervention & c-sect etc, but the one we picked was very supportive of natural labour and we had a great experience. Yet another one close by does not have the same reputation.
I would just really research the hospitals close by and see what you think will suit you best

[Sheer Bliss]

I would base my decision more on the hospitals avail to me, rather than if they are public or private. The 2 closest public maternity hospitals...I wouldn't go near. One is really small, with not resident OB or paed - someone is always on call, but not always at the hospital. The other bigger public - I have not heard one good thing about the m/w there, nor heard of a positive intervention free birth there.

The closest delivering private hospy is where I had all 4 of my kids, great m/w every time, and with all my bubs ending up in the SCN and having stayed a week, I have been greatful to have been private and stay somewhere nice and not go home without my babies. It is also a comfort that the private is on the same grounds as the big public that has fantastic specialists and a great NICU (which thankfully we didn't need)

Cost is the other big factor - we had to pay alot more in the private hospy for our OB and tests as opposed to nothing (or barely nothing) if we had gone public. But IMO it was well worth it, as i don't have normal healthy pregnancies.

[garfield13]

The last post reminded me of one thing. DD has mild jaundice by day 2 and need the lights and follow up bloods over the next 48hrs. If we were public I would have been sent home & she would have had to stay in. Even on day 5 when we were due to leave they advised that if she needed to stay for the jaundice longer (luckily she didnt) that they would not have sent me home and would have extended my stay until bubs could come home

[HollyHotLips]

The most important factor for me was having a private room.

Where the hospital was located made no difference - the private and public are joined to each other!

I'll be going private again, again because I want my own room once the baby's born. I guess having your own obs is also a factor but TBH it could have been anyone down there and I wouldnt have cared at the time... :laughing: