6 Days for an MRI...and counting

Jonny303

Hi,

Wondering if someone in the know can lend any sort of insight into my sisters current situation.

Went into A&E in vincents last Wednesday night on recommendations from her doctor for an investigation into numbness in her arm. Being checked from everything from MS to a trapped nerve.

She has had whatever tests required done and is not under observation but is now waiting 6 days to get an MRI. She has had no tests done since last Thursday. Was told it would be today and hasn't. She has been let home at the weekend during the day but has to sleep in the hospital so she does not loose her place. She was in the public end, now in private.

Can it really take this long to get an MRI?? Would it not make more sense to be called back in as a day patient or is it someone somewhere in the hospital racking up the bills to VHI?

It all just seems to make no sense...

mickdw

Could she not go to another private hospital for the mri?

Anita Blow

There is separate inpatient and outpatient slots so her team is keeping her in so she stays on the outpatient list where she waits a couple days for an MRI as opposed to outpatient list where she'll be waiting months

Vorsprung

Welcome to the Irish health system,where we have a system that requires doctors to keep someone in to ensure they get the test they need (MRI costing 200-400 euros in a private provider) we spend 900-1000 euros per night on an inpatient bed.

****ing lunacy, Ted.

echo beach

Vorsprung wrote: »

Welcome to the Irish health system,where we have a system that requires doctors to keep someone in to ensure they get the test they need (MRI costing 200-400 euros in a private provider) we spend 900-1000 euros per night on an inpatient bed.

****ing lunacy, Ted.

Lunacy but there is also a logic in filling hospital beds with people who aren’t actually sick. The figure of 900-1000 euro a night is an average. If all patients needed a great deal of care either the figure would be higher or the system would be even closer to collapse than it already is.
My observation is that about a third to a half of in-patients require little or no medical and nursing care. Many don’t even eat the food! This allows the staff to focus on the patients who are sick.

OMD

Jonny303 wrote: »

Hi,

Wondering if someone in the know can lend any sort of insight into my sisters current situation.

Went into A&E in vincents last Wednesday night on recommendations from her doctor for an investigation into numbness in her arm. Being checked from everything from MS to a trapped nerve.

She has had whatever tests required done and is not under observation but is now waiting 6 days to get an MRI. She has had no tests done since last Thursday. Was told it would be today and hasn't. She has been let home at the weekend during the day but has to sleep in the hospital so she does not loose her place. She was in the public end, now in private.

Can it really take this long to get an MRI?? Would it not make more sense to be called back in as a day patient or is it someone somewhere in the hospital racking up the bills to VHI?

It all just seems to make no sense...

If the health insurer finds out they will not pay and your sister will be liable for the costs.

RobFowl

OMD wrote: »

If the health insurer finds out they will not pay and your sister will be liable for the costs.

No she will not.
Don't be ridiculous and scaremongering.

OMD

RobFowl wrote: »

No she will not.
Don't be ridiculous and scaremongering.

Yes she might be.
It happens very regularly. Sometimes the hospital absorb the cost so the patient isn't out of pocket, sometimes they don't.Legally if the insurer refuses to pay, as they are fully entitled to do in this case, the patient is liable.

for example
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057125656

RobFowl

OMD wrote: »

Yes she might be.

No she won't. She is an emergency admission to a public hospital. Any money St Vincents gets from the VHI is a bonus for them.

OMD

RobFowl wrote: »

No she won't. She is an emergency admission to a public hospital. Any money St Vincents gets from the VHI is a bonus for them.

You are talking about something you do not have a clue about.

Obviously you are completely wrong.

byhookorbycrook

Jonny303, 6 days wait for an MRI is actually very, very short- public or private.

RobFowl

OMD wrote: »

You are talking about something you do not have a clue about.

Obviously you are completely wrong.

Sighs

OMD

RobFowl wrote: »

Sighs

The arrogance and ignorance of your posts are astounding.

First if she was in St Vincent's then it was Vincent's private not public hospital

She was in the public end, now in private

.

Secondly, even if she was in a public hospital, they can and do pursue the money up to and including taking the patient to court. A quick google search of this type of court case gives you this
http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=20643
"Dublin District Court has refused a claim from Dublin's Beaumont Hospital for the recovery from a patient of a €4,000 bill for private accommodation".

Think how many cases do not make it as far as court.

fixXxer

As a previous poster said, there are two categories of MRI waiting lists, inpatients and outpatients. Inpatients are usually sicker than out patients so they have a shorter waiting list. However emergency patients and critical patients often crop up and have to be slotted in straight away. Vincent's also does MRI scans for a lot of smaller hospitals in the area and only has the one MRI machine. If your sister was critical she would have been scanned by now in the public hospital I would say, so six days would not be unusual.

kaymin

Last week when i wanted an MRI done I went to my GP on the Monday for the referral and then looked through VHI documents to see which MRI provider was covered. Booked myself into Affidea for the Thursday. There might even have been free slots sooner in other Affidea clinics. Got the results on the following Monday.

Nonoperational

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Jonny303, 6 days wait for an MRI is actually very, very short- public or private.

Not as an in-patient. It's ridiculously long.

fixXxer

Nonoperational wrote:

Not as an in-patient. It's ridiculously long.

It depends how critically urgent it is.

Teyla Emmagan

I had one done privately recently. The VHI paid but they sent me a thing saying the MRI had cost €125 euro. Which I thought was very cheap. And when I rang the place to book they had a slot open the same evening. Which didn't suit, so instead I hadn't done on a SUNDAY evening. It was all very impressive.

pointelle

I know someone who was admitted so a test could be done they did it next day it was a potentially big thing , maybe an arm somehow considered a lesser complaint. Perhaps she shouldn"t have used her health insurance it certainly sounds strange, get in touch with the provider they may be able to sort it out?

Nonoperational

fixxxer wrote: »

It depends how critically urgent it is.

And the hospital I guess, but I'd cause a big fuss if that was the case for any of my patients.

Martina1991

pointelle wrote:

I know someone who was admitted so a test could be done they did it next day it was a potentially big thing , maybe an arm somehow considered a lesser complaint. Perhaps she shouldn"t have used her health insurance it certainly sounds strange, get in touch with the provider they may be able to sort it out?

Was that an MRI or a scan though.
Different procedures have different waiting lists.