Priviate vs Semi Private vs Public

LegacyUser

Hi.

My wife and I found out she is pregnant today, overjoyed of course.

This is our third pregnancy.

Sadly both previous pregnancies ended with us losing the babies so obviously this time around we are both very nervous.

One of the hardest things we found was the process in the Coombe by going public.

We found it, for want of a better term, like a cattle mart.

The place is always thronged and Im sure anyone that has been through it can understand how hard it was for my wife to sit in the waiting room, surrounded by heavily pregnant women when we had just lost our own child.

We are considering going private or semi private so would love to hear from anyone that has done so and we have a couple of questions.

1) In terms of the waiting room, do the private consultants have their own office / waiting room ie not beside the emergency room in the Coombe?

2) If you went private do you regret doing so and if so, why?

3) If an instance arose where we had to go in for an emergency, would we still have to go to the regular ER waiting area?

4) What are the differences between private and SP?

Any opinions, thoughts or experiences would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

fits

I am very sorry to hear of your losses.

I can only relate my own experience. I was diagnosed with some issues in March and then when I got pregnant I was very concerned about the viability of the pregnancy so we decided to go private straight away. It is in Kilkenny and will cost 2750 for antenatal care of which I can claim 400 back from my health insurance policy and I will also make a claim against tax. Im not sure how much the birth willcost but have private health insurance

The waiting room where I am is normally pretty quiet and there is a separate area to sit down if preferred. I was scanned weekly from weeks 7-12 and fortnightly since. ITs a twin pregnancy so I am scanned more often anyway. The clinic is in a separate building near the hospital and only private patients are seen there.

I am happy with the care so far anyway and was confident that if there were any issues, they would be spotted quickly.

I cant vouch for private care elsewhere though.

xalot

New Dad, am very sorry to hear of what a tough time you've had. Congratulations on this pregnancy and I hope it's smooth sailing for you both.

I went public (Domino Scheme) on my first pregnancy and going fully private on this one. Am only seven months pregnant so cant comment on the differences in the labour experience but I'll tell you the differences in my visits so far.

As I was on the midwife led care last time I didn't have any long waits at appointments and had a smooth pregnancy, couple of blood pressure blips but nothing extraordinary. My labour however, was a nightmare, and I have no doubt if I'd been private it would have been a very different story.
I'll answer what I can of your questions:

1) This time around I'm private with Nadine Farah in the Coombe, she has her own office and very large private waiting room in the private area of the hospital, completely separate from the emergency area. A lot of my appointments have been upstairs in the x ray department as she does a very detailed scan at each appointment. She also does the Anomaly scan herself. When you go private you have your first appointment at around 8 weeks (12 if public) which includes an internal/external scan.

2) I cant stress how happy I am with the level of care and the whole experience. I've already had a couple of extra appointments for small issues that she wanted to keep an eye on.

3) I'm not sure what the situation is in an emergency, perhaps another poster can help you with that.

4) I'n no expert on semi private but I believe that you are on a particular consultants 'team' which means you may not see the same consultant at each appointment. I'm not sure what part of the hospital these are held. Bedding wise, you get a private room if one is available when you go private, the semi private wards have up to 6 beds (I was on these last time, and most of the time there were only 2/3 of us on the ward). The public wards are bigger, 8 beds I think, (I also spent a couple of nights in a public ward before I had the baby and didn't get a wink of sleep).

In summary, you've had a difficult time of it and if you can afford it I think you should go private for peace of mind. I know people who were high risk who had great experiences on the public system but I personally feel much more comfortable going private.

stickybean

hi New_Dad,

So sorry to hear about your losses.

We tried for almost 5 years for this baby and spend a great deal financially and emotionally with IVF, ISCI and just general investigations.

When we did get pregnant we did a lot of research and the bet option for us was to go private. The main reason was consistency of care.

We meet with the consultant each week, he is very thorough and we also like that we get a scan each time (In the early days I found this very reassuring). I like meeting the same person each time and for us we feel it is money well spent.

From a personal point of view I like having an appointment time and been seen within a few minutes of it.

I had my daughter many years back and remember sitting in a waiting room for hours, like you said it was a cattle mart. Also having someone different each time and different advice. And not having any scans.

I guess it is different for everyone, but so far this i the best option for us

judeboy101

Private in coombe for all of ours (pm if u want doc name). If everything goes right no difference between private /public apart from nice quiet room after. BUT, if even the slightest thing goes wrong or for peace of mind you can't beat private. At the end of the day a consultant obstetrician beats a nurse when the proverbial **** hits the fan. You'll pay ~4-5k (assuming insurance) for coombe and you'll get scanned every time and usually seen 2 times a month from 2nd trimester.

lazygal

I would go public or private. Semi private is a waste of money. Private care was worth every single cent for me. I had some experience of public and it definitely wasn't the level of care I wanted.

Millem

Hi new dad, congrats
I have one child and I did domino in holles street as a first time mum so had nothing to compare it to. Midwives were fantastic I would recommend it for anyone who has a straight forward pregnancy and labour.

I am currently seeing dr nadine farah for gyne issues. She is so so so lovely. I think more than likely we will go to her privately for baby number 2 when the time comes (fingers crossed). She works in Coombe. Her fees are 3k and include scans. My laya gives us 450 back and then you can claim 20% back on remaining from revenue. I don't care if I get a private room or not it's the care over the 40 weeks I am paying for. I really don't want to keep repeating myself to different people and feeling fobbed off. I don't think I am eligible for domino anymore, I defo think I will want a scan at every app (domino don't do this) and no way will I go public. I saw the clinic in action one day getting that diabetes test. It was insane.

The last time I was in hospital my nurse said she was going to go to dr Sharon cooley in the rotunda fees are 2.5k.

olaola

judeboy101 wrote: »

At the end of the day a consultant obstetrician beats a nurse when the proverbial **** hits the fan. You'll pay ~4-5k (assuming insurance) for coombe and you'll get scanned every time and usually seen 2 times a month from 2nd trimester.

In ANY situation, where the proverbial hits the fan, you will see the most qualified person required at that time. The midwife is not exactly going to scrub up and perform a section.

I've been Domino on both, loved it. No queues, appts are at a quiet time in the hospital (you're often the only person in the waiting room) any issues addressed with possibly too much caution. Second birth was textbook, better than I could have hoped for. Not sure if your wife would be considered low risk, depending on history.

seamus

Can't comment on the Coombe really. We went to the Rotunda on our first, booked in with the Coombe for the second, but then miscarried. Our experience attending the emergency clinic in the Coombe was enough to turn us off completely, so we're going back to the Rotunda.

Went semi-private the first time and went back semi-private again this time.

In the Rotunda, the semi-private & private clinic is completely separated from the public; it's in a different building. There's a waiting room that's a lot more like a dentist's office than a hospital. Certainly it's not the "cattle mart" that you get in the public part of the main hospital.

In terms of rooms, there's always the possibility that what you get is no better than the public ward. If the private/semi-private rooms are full, you will get bumped to the public ward until something becomes free.

What you get for your semi/private cash is basically a nicer system in the appointments leading up to the due date, a general continuity of care (i.e. you're not seeing a different registrar every time) and the liklihood of a smei/private room at the time.

If the sh1t hits the fan or you otherwise have to attend in an emergency, there's no special private emergency team or private emergency room. Everyone gets the best people available at the time regardless of how much they've paid.

LegacyUser

Many thanks for the detailed posts folks, greatly appreciated.

We had considered going to a different hospital but seeing as the Coombe has the full history we think its easier than having to go through everything in a new place.

I guess it does come down to money at the end of the day. We aren't minted but we certainly aren't struggling either. We do have vhi and she can claim back up to €500 for consultant fees through that, we werent aware that we could also claim back through revenue, that would be super too.

Ultimately we know that the level of care would probably be more or less the same public vs private but given that we are both quite anxious because of the past experiences it would be nice to have that additional peace of mind in terms of weekly scans and guaranteed access to the same consultant all the time (outside of emergency situations of course). Also the public queue in the Coombe is just terrible we thought.

That's something that money cannot buy.

My wife was to speak to one of the midwives today to find out about fees but I think we'd both feel that little but better with private care.

Hopefully everything will go according to plan this time around and we won't need to worry about anything other than welcoming our healthy new arrival next spring.

Thanks again folks.

fits

Good luck New Dad!

whiskeyman

Best of luck newDad.
Given your history, I think private will provide the extra peace of mind as you mention.
This alone will be worth it if you can afford it.

genie_us

Hi New Dad, and congrats to you both! Really hope everything goes well for you this time I can imagine how nerve wrecking it must be.

I see you've pretty much made your decision but I thought I would throw my 2 cents in anyway. I'm currently pregnant with no 2 due in November and this is our 2nd time going semi-private at the coombe.

On our first pregnancy the consultant whose team we were on was on mat leave so we didn't see her specifically. However each appointment we did see the same consultant who was covering her work.

On this pregnancy we've been appointed another Dr and we have seen him every time so far.
The appointments are located down the hall away from the emergency area. The longest we've had to wait is about 30 minutes I'd say.

On my first labour I ended up having an emergency section. The whole labour wasn't great and to be honest I think most of my memory of it is from what my husband told me! But we got the best of care, I was 100% happy with it. As someone else says, I don't think this comes down to private/public - you get the treatment you need regardless.

I was in a semi private ward the first night ( it was 2am after the delivery by the time I got to the ward - maybe it was a post delivery ward rather than a semi p ward? No idea) and by 9am the next morning I had a room to myself.

So basically I'm very happy with the level of care we have received. I like that we get scanned at every appointment - we currently see the consultant or GP every 6 weeks, so an appointment every 3 weeks with one or the other. The fees for semi private were 1700 I think.

Hope that helps! Wishing you all the best for the pregnancy

Gael23

Private without question of you can afford it. It will be worth it for her to see the same person at every appointment that knows her history.
Going public there is no continuity of care, you never see the same person twice so your seeing someone with a different opinion every time. that's ok in a straightforward case but when something goes wrong and decisions are made by someone who may have seen you once through the whole pregnancy it's not.