Unfortunately, there are no specialists here. Our GP sent us to Townsville earlier this year just incase the babies came early, before 36 weeks. We were in Townsville for just over 4 weeks, came home and had the babies nearly 2 weeks later @ 38 weeks. We have 4 Pediatrician's based here. We dealt with 2 of them while Nicole was in hospital. They were nice and supportive of our needs. We are also very fortunate we have the Flying Doctors here. I donate money to them also (as well as the rescue helicopter we have based here too) as they are extremely valuable to the rurual areas. When we were in Townsville, the specialists in the maternity ward there told us the RFDS fly on average 2 mothers a week to Townsville from Mount Isa because of their need to see specialist Doctors. Qantas fly the other 3-4 mothers. We were flown Qantas because it was not that urgent to get there. We arrived at 9 pm the same night our GP told us. I asked Nicole in regards to why we paid big bucks for the ultrasounds. The same woman does the scans for everyone, she is the only person we have in town that is qualified. She was an Asian woman and she told us she is extremely busy and rarely gets a day off because of this fact. That Xray clinic in the public hospital is privately owned now. The other difference being is we get 8 pics of the babies printed off as opposed to only 2 pics. But the MAIN reason we paid was so we could book on the dates we wanted to go in for the ultrasounds. This was very important for Nicole as she can't get time off easy through work so we paid for them so we could go on our days off together. If we went public, it would have been "free", but they tell you when to go in for your ultrasound. A friend is pregnant and going through the public system now. She doesn't work so has plenty of time to go in when they tell her. The Townsville maternity ward was amazing and I am glad we were sent there in the event these little rascals came along early. I can only imagine (dream) how good the care you receive is at a good private hospital. Almost better off doing that I reckon. My thoughts exactly. In the big smoke I wouldn't mind at all, but out here it's a bit of a waste of time I think. But it's all good, it's only money right.
See above ^^^ Yep, private patient in a public hospital. But trust me, there are NO perks from being a private patient as opposed to a public patient here. Again, I wondered why we spent all the extra money on all of this!!!! Probably just the wank factor mothers like to discuss when asked if they went "private or public" here in Mount Isa.
hooray, this I agree 100% with !! This is why people today are disillusioned with govts across the world, and marginally elected govts are the worst because they are hanging on by their fingernails. I think a lot of good people go into politics thinking they can help change the bad parts of their respective ideologies but then realism of the machinations hit them square between the eyes and although they keep regurgitating the thoughts of their respective sides of politics, they are themselves disillusioned with the possible achievable objectives. With private health cover at the most expensive level from NIB we still paid over $16k in oncology related fees last year and they are still going. If I had been in the public system it would have been free. So the logic is that because I'm a well off middle class yuppie the $16k was spend on a more deserving person ??!!
Mate, the perks aren't comfy beds and scented candles, but rather that a Specialist is directly involved in your care instead of a nurse/midwife that is less equipped to deal with a crisis. That is what you are paying for
the BEST ICU on the Gold Coast is the public hospital, I paid heaps of money for private and when Leonie was in DEEP trouble 10 years ago and on the way to hospital they asked where I wanted her to go, told them whereever the best treatment is, they ruled the 4 private hospitals out immediately, said the best care while in ICU was the public Gold Coast hospital, it still is today ..... I'm still in private ... I like new shoes and glasses each year Mind you, Dr Ron at the ICU and I are NOT on each other's xmas card list, I refused to concede he was a god but he acknowledged I'm a self-opinionated arsehole, he said she was going to die and I should prepare my 7yo son for the inevitable, the nurses in the ICU agreed with Ron but gave her the best care possible with all the other patients dying around her and somehow she survived with my meddling of dosages of the drugs they were giving her (they reckoned I couldn't do any harm as she was as good as dead anyway, but unfortunately for them my vested interest and her will to live got her through, the specialists had written her off and I hardly saw them even though I had top coverage and they knew it ) I still think we have incredible doctors and our health system , while not perfect , is one of the better ones in the world
100% on the money Ian. I can only speak for Victoria, but our public sector has become an inefficient machine and has been growing year on year and it is unsustainable IMO. When Bracks came in The Premiers Department staff increased exponentially. Labors way of reducing unemployment seemed to be by increasing the public service. I think from memory 1 in 5 Victorians are in the public sector. IMO at some point someone is going to have to have the balls to severely cut the public service.
That is what is happening up here, but they are going about it all wrong. Instead of ****ing off the dead wood, departments are given a figures to budget to that are unrealistic for the service they provide. So good people are going as well. Next they will realise they have been too severe and will knee jerk into employing again. Meanwhile the people they actually had that were good have got a job somewhere else.
Can't follow that logic - sorry. If you pay into private health insurance that money goes into the health system - and as Greg has pointed out every private patient means one less public ne and therefore less load on the public system. If you don't pay private health insurance the same money goes into consolidated revenue and thus only a percentage of it goes into the health system... It seems to me that by opting out of private insurance you are actually, despite paying more, reducing the amount of funds available to the health sector.
Don't want to get too heavily into the politics of this at this point - a few more scotches and I might - but I am constantly amazed at the number of patients we have to bring in to the major cities for what I would have thought was fairly "routine" treatment. The hospitals in large rural towns do seem to be surprisingly lacking in some services. As an RFDS pilot, I appreciate the generous comments. It's a great job.
Lol, another **** up http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/telehealth-is-a-620m-video-conferencing-black-hole/story-e6freuy9-1226542718679
I'll second Pap's comment! Have had to call in the RFDS from Isa and they were on site (about 150km south east of Isa) in 40minutes
Dead right - my 87 y/o mother is in MUH with pneumonia - not good at that age. I just received a sms from the specialist(someone you would know for sure Greg - he's a a/prof respiratory bloke, races a Lotus), explaining this mornings test results. That sort of thing is unlikely to happen outside the private system...
Hope she picks up mate. Ran out of weekends to organise a breakfast run this year, just been chock-a-block. Let's see if we can do something before next Christmas!
