Private patient in a public hospital?

I need to get a shoulder procedure done, and it looks like my health cover only covers private patients in a public hospital. Silly me, I used to have private hospital cover as well but dropped it a few years ago.

Has anyone had surgery as a private patient in a public hospital? I hear conflicting views about the waiting times. Some people say it is huge and others say that as a private patient it may not be as long.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Hey FormulaNova, both my wife and my mum have done this and it worked out ok. We found that because the health fund is footing the bill, you get slotted in real quick as a paying customer. The only real difference we found was that you don't get a private room with fancy food like some private hospitals

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Paddles B'mere said..
Hey FormulaNova, both my wife and my mum have done this and it worked out ok. We found that because the health fund is footing the bill, you get slotted in real quick as a paying customer. The only real difference we found was that you don't get a private room with fancy food like some private hospitals

That's great news. I have a cousin that is a nurse and she was saying the same thing. I think the private hospital is giving me the pessimistic view because it competes with their own business. They are saying 12-18 months, but that is normal public waiting list times. From what I have found online it looks like both the surgeon and the hospital like a certain number of private patients, as you say, because it brings in income to the hospital and the surgeon still gets paid. In effect this provides money to the hospital to fund public patients.

I don't mind a public ward. I have had private hospital cover before, but I just care about the procedure and the rest is academic.

I don't have a particular surgeon in mind, even though I have already consulted with one. I think my drama is going to be finding one that has privileges in a public hospital as well as room on his waiting lists. I really think that in this case my existing surgeon won't do it, so I will need to somehow work backwards and find a list of surgeons that operate in the hospital that I think is most likely.

I feel a lot more reassured than earlier. Thanks guys. The prospect of waiting 12 months for this is not something that fills me with joy, so having people say they got in quickly is heaps better and making me happy!

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Carantoc said..

FormulaNova said..
.....I don't have a particular surgeon in mind, ...

Welll,,, heeello FormulaNova

For a fellow sailor I am more than willing to offer my services to help out here.

Yes..., I've limited experience in this area for sure but hey, how hard can it be really ?

Your shoulder you say ? no worries, just let me know left or right and I'll see what I can do with the pesky little blighter.

And the benefit is the only aneth... aneeesth. antesthet... anestectic I have is a 12 year old single malt, but it seems to be working OK...

Ha

Isn't it the patient that's supposed to have the anaesthetic? I can't normally spell that word either. If the 'Doctor' has it, it might make things a little bit too slow.

Do I need to tell you if its left or right? I don't want to unfairly influence the outcome of the surgery.

Send down the whisky with the Elgrand and I will let you know how it goes via return mail

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evlPanda said..

nnnbrewery said..
The main benefit of private health cover here means you can choose your surgeon.

How do people choose a surgeon? Is there an app for that? Swipe left/right?

Serious, how?

Like choosing a plumber or electrician... ask around for recommendations.

First place to ask is your GP if you have no one else. Otherwise... ask your doctor/surgeon friends (they often know). Ask the nurses at the hospital. Ask your friend that had similar surgery a while back. Or maybe... if you have a good interaction with a surgeon at the hospital and they fill you with confidence, stick with them (or if the other way around, find someone else)!

I think some health funds provide a recommendation service also.

As for recommendations, I think it is more complex than the ideal. Particularly when you are talking about a surgeon that will operate in a public hospital. That adds another layer of complexity.

I go to a medical centre, but I try and stick to the same doctors if I can. In my case I went to a doctor about my shoulder problem and he was good, and he referred me to a specialist. When I called up the specialist, there was a wait of a few weeks.

Later, when I needed to see a different specialist, I went to a different doctor in the same practice 'who knows a good shoulder guy', and when I ring up I find that they don't have any appointments for 2 to 3 months.

So, I ring around to find a specialist who does have better waiting times, book an appointment, and then get a referral. It seems the more practical way to do this as then you know when you can get in.

After the consultation, I find that although the doctor does also operate in one public hospital, they don't seem too keen on it, and supposedly the wait time is huge.

So, now, I have approached someone who is a nurse at a public hospital and asked them to recommend someone who practices there, which they have. I now have another wait of a few weeks to see them.

All of these doctors except the last one has been without any personal recommendation. I just don't know how you would be able to do this AND be able to get decent waiting times for appointments and for waiting lists for surgery. You don't have too much choice unless you are able to wait.

One thing that was an eye opener was the myhospitals website that the government seems to have created, in my opinion, to try and make each hospital responsible for its performance, by publishing its waiting time and throughput stats.

If you want to try and compare different hospitals, try this:

www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/myhospitals/sectors/elective-surgery

Its a bit scary how much of a waiting time can be at some hospitals versus others.

One thing that I have also noticed during this is that specialists are so specialised that they only see problems with their own area of speciality. It seems there is a missing link that can group together all the medical information, and I don't think its a GP.

I'm serious. It really is like choosing a plumber or electrician...

Your recommendations are only as good as the recommenders. In the end your situation is specific to you and a great recommendation and great surgeon is still no guarantee.

I was listening to a story on "unnecessary back surgery" some weeks back. There was research saying that a lot of back surgery is completely pointless, with no evidence to back it up (i.e. rate of successful outcomes not justifying the rate of surgery in any objective, statistical measures). The researcher was making the point, that if you get a recommendation for surgery, get a second opinion. Hell, get a third. As for getting references, ask your surgeon to refer you to another surgeon - they should have no problems with this at all. Food for thought...

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Carantoc said..

nnnbrewery said..
.... There was research saying that a lot of back surgery is completely pointless, with no evidence to back it up ..

Fair enough but FormulaNova may have a serious shoulder issue.

Maybe they are slippery. As slippery as fxxk.

I don't know about his backbone. Can't comment on that.



P.S. The Elgrand has a puncture at the moment, otherwise I'd send it on down to you FormulaN.

I don't understand the bit about slippery shoulders. Is this a farming related joke?

As for any suggestion I don't have a backbone, its okay, I can prove it. While the MRI imaging people were commenting on the spine, I was looking at the image of my brain that was in the same scan and thinking 'I knew I had one'. I intend to show the MRI to anyone from now on that suggests I don't have a brain in my head. I have the proof!

As for the backbone, the MRI people seem to be pretty sure there is one there too. I don't have proof that it goes all the way, but the top bit is there. Again, evidence for anyone that accuses me of being spineless.

Just on a random point, I am amazed the level of detail you can get from imaging. Its incredible. The interpreting of it is still a bit of a hit and miss affair, but I am guessing it is just going to get better with time.

I just can't help but feel that in some ways it is creating a problem for our medical system. There seems to be a lot of proof that a lot of people have problems with their bodies and there are no symptoms or problems. So, imaging scans can show up issues with your body that may or may not contribute to a problem. A specialist can see these issues and focus on them and lose track of other supporting evidence.

I just stumbled across this from before, so I thought I might post a follow up of my experience in case it helps someone.

In summary, I had private health insurance that covered a private surgeon in a public hospital, but not private hospital costs. I had shoulder impingement.

When I asked two separate orthopaedic surgeons, they agree to book me in for a public hospital, but in both cases the admin people there told me that the wait time could be up to 18 months but most likely 12 months. They seemed very negative about this, and I still don't know if this is because they would prefer you to go into a private hospital, or if they are just pessimistic.

So, I decided to pay for it myself, privately, and got the surgery done within 2 weeks of when I decided to go ahead with it. It was a great decision as the pain after surgery was much less than before the surgery. Every day got better, and the painkillers that I needed before surgery weren't needed a few days after the surgery, so I was pleased.

As part of the recovery, I took myself on an overseas trip. After a few weeks I got an email from the public hospital saying that they wanted to book me in for surgery in September, i.e. 3 months from when I first registered in their system! 3 months instead of 12 or 18!

What I had been told by some people, and bits I have read online suggest that the public hospitals use the funding from private patients to offset the cost of public patients, i.e. they get a mix of private and public to manage their budgets. Yet, the secretary at one of these surgeons said "no, that can't happen as they would be discriminating against public patients".

Well, my opinion now is that it probably does work that way, and the wait time won't be as long as expected. In my case, I am glad I chose to pay for it, even though its expensive, but if I had known that I would have only had to wait a few months...?

Another thing to note, is that not all private hospitals charge the same for their accommodation and theatre fees. In my case I got quotes from two places and there was a significant difference in costs between the two. I suspect that insurance companies work out deals with all the hospitals, and the price you and I pay is nowhere near as cheap.

Had a similar experience to FN. Had a fight with a circular saw and come off second best so I went down to the emergency at the public hospital. They took one look, said I need a surgeon to look at it and promptly stiched the wound together to stop the bleeding and bundled me in to a hospital bed to wait. Fairly soon Ms Admin turns up and gets my private health care details (which was the full deal) and said that they would bill the health cover for my holiday with them. 3 days later I was still waiting to see the surgeon. So getting the ****s by now, I told them I was leaving there holiday resort and heading off to the private hospital down the road. Hey presto, a slot opens up in the theatre waiting list and I was sorted out.

Really got the feeling they were treating me as a cash cow. The longer I stayed the better it was financially for them.