Advise Needed - Queen Mary vs. Maltida with No Insurance

J

jwc209

Registered User
Hi all, I'm pregnant with my first (8 weeks along) and due in late May 2012. Currently, I?m seeing a private doctor for pre-natal check ups. I?ve had two check ups and scans so far and everything is going well. My private doctor is a resident at Maltida and I?m early enough to apply to deliver there.

The problem is my insurance doesn?t cover maternity and I have to pay all cost out of pocket. I?m considering doing all the pre-natal check ups privately and deliver at a public hospital. I live in Pokfulam so I will qualify for Queen Mary.

I am wondering if anyone has delivered both at Queen Mary and Maltida and can share their experiences and what they would do if they have to choose again. Is Maltida that much better to justify paying $100K out of pocket for delivery?

Your insight will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.
 
It's a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. If you've got 100k ish to spare and it's really important to you to, for example, know your doctor well before delivery, have a private room and the other benefits that Matilda has then go for it. If however these sorts of things aren't important to you and it would be a stretch to afford it then, QM would be the way to go.

Medically, I've no reason to think there is a great difference between the two, if there is a problem with baby needing NICU or something like that then you would go to QM anyway as Matilda don't have those facilities but for a regular birth and aftercare, I've heard great things about both but also heard bad things about both.

Sorry, I know that's not much help but it does really depend on what you are looking for and your financial situation - maybe visit both and see how you feel after that.
 
If I would niot have maternity insurance I would go for QM! Matilda it's grat for comfort but 100k is a lots of money for delivery and 3 days in hospital I think. I also heard that QM has best maternity ward medicly speaking and if there are any complications with your pregnancy Matilda would sent to to QM for delivery any way!
But I m pregnant with my first and did not deliver in either, and besed my opinion on what I heard from people plus what I would do if I would not have insurance. But ultimatly this is your decision and you need to feel comfortable with it!
 
From everything I have read, Matilda seems to be the private hospital that is most accommodating to the mum's requests. I did not deliver there - went public the first time and have chosen a cheaper private hospital this time - but my husband had surgery there and the room was like a hotel room, complete with room service menu, nurses who were extremely friendly etc. In terms of comfort, I am sure Matilda is much much more comfortable than being in a public hospital. Queen Mary seems to be the most accommodating public hospital and the most expat friendly but I'm sure there's a vast difference in terms of comfort level and the number of 'rules' to be followed between Queen Mary and Matilda.

In terms of medical care, you can be sure the public system can match Matilda. But you can't choose your doctor in the public system - this was not a big deal to me but I did unfortunately get a very uncaring doctor when I delivered last year at United Christian.

It really depends how much you will be stretching yourself to deliver at Matilda.
 
We can afford to pay out of pocket for Miltada... but it is a large sum that we rather put towards development/education for the baby.

I'm not so fussed about the comfort of a private room or restrictive visiting hours. I'm more concerned about having the best care possible during and post delivery. I am not very attached to my private doctor yet but it gives me comfort to know he has a good reputation and has vast experience in child delivery. Not knowing who will deliver my baby, doctor or midwife or intern is a little scary for me. Also I heard Miltada is very good in terms of baby/mom bounding post delivery and encouring breast feeding.

Has anyone delivered at both that can share their experiences and why they choose one over another?

Thanks all!
 
though i haven't delivered at QMH, 2 of my 3 children have been patients at the NICU there before (the first was in fact delivered at Matilda and ended up at QMH the same night - the 3rd was there for "yellow" can't remember the term....

anyhow, the point is that if you have a "problem" pregnancy - you want to be at QMH NOT Matilda. If it's a "normal" pregnancy then Matilda would be the choice - only because the personnel there are great and accomodating. QMH nurses and doctors are great too - but there are many restrictions as the to time you are allowed to feed your visit / feed your baby (though they ARE pro-breast feeding) they do not have enough staff to teach you each time - Matilda would have the people.

Would you be looking at other private hospitals? I've delivered at Matilda, HK Sanatorium and Adventist and I find HK Sanatorium the best all round hospital to deliver in. Just wondering since the price for the 3 hospitals mentioned above are very similar.
 
jwc209 said:
Not knowing who will deliver my baby, doctor or midwife or intern is a little scary for me.
Click to expand...

About the above, the midwives were the ones primarily around for my delivery at United Christian (public) and were excellent. I suspect they were much more experienced than the doctor who popped in now and then, and they were definitely much more caring. However, if there are complications, I'm sure your case would be escalated to a senior doctor.
 
lesliefu said:
If it's a "normal" pregnancy then Matilda would be the choice - only because the personnel there are great and accomodating. QMH nurses and doctors are great too - but there are many restrictions as the to time you are allowed to feed your visit / feed your baby (though they ARE pro-breast feeding) they do not have enough staff to teach you each time - Matilda would have the people.
Click to expand...

You also get lovely wards, beautiful grounds, nice chairs&sofas, many rooms with views and top notch food along with native english speaking staff and floor & room mates from the monied classes.

Since you will be paying out of pocket, this privilege will cost you approximately $30,000 per day.

Personally, I would have much better things to do with $100,000HKD (a typical 3 day stay in Matilda) than to spend it on a 3 day hospital stay.

HC
 
The other thing to keep in mind is that your bill may blow out above 100,000. Although you will be quoted a certain price, my bill and that of my friends always came to around 15-20% above that. ?underquoting - not sure, but is was always consistently the case. I guess at the end of the day each birth has things come up that the doctor nor you expect and it just tends to add to the bill e.g. a bit more bleeding, so extra blood tests were needed, baby looked a bit yellow and again extra tests needed.
One other note though, in general you do see more senior, established doctors when you deliver in the private and if you don't like their bedside manner you can change. The people who deliver you and examine your newborn in the public tend to be on the more junior side and you can not choose.

End of the day, it depends on what is important to you and what you can afford. Lots to think about.
 
I don't think that many people have done private AND public - most I've talked to seem to do one or the other.

I personally didn't think it was worth $100,000 for three days. I delivered both my girls at QMH. It is "adequate". I have my (many) annoyances with the hospital, but nothing that I would pay $100,000 to avoid.

I have friends who did go to Matilda without insurance and they were happy with their decision. I have even thought that if/when we have a third child, I might do that myself. We are earning more than we were three years ago when my eldest was born and it would be less of a blow to the budget... BUT $100K is $100K no matter what you're earning and I don't know if I could justify it...
 
no way on this earth could i contemplate spending that kind of money for a 3 day visit (and delivery of my child).

if it's western food you want and you are at QMH, order from sohodelivers. they'll deliver right to the ward-room door (not into the ward). i did it many times in my numerous hospitalisations.

even if i splurged and bought every meal from sohodelivers, i'd still have $98000 left to:
1) take a trip
2) treat myself to post-natal massage
3) put into an education fund
4) pay for a helper for about 28 months (at minimum wage)
5) buy a decent second hand car
6) invest

sorry, while i love the idea of a hotel-like stay, what was important to me was the medical care that my babies would receive. the place for that is QMH, not matilda. of course, not everyone is the same... that's just me.
 
I don't think that when people to go private - whether Matilda or anywhere else - a hotel-like stay is at the top of their minds. I went public last time and what has made me choose private this time is:
1. Ensuring an epidural if I want one. I was induced but did not manage to get an epidural last time.
2. Not having to see the horrid doctor who was on call the night I delivered. Instead having a doctor who will actually listen to me.
3. My epistiomy cut was huge and the wound did not heal till more than three months after. Basically, the stitches did not dissolve. I could actually see the blue thread. This could be attributed to the quality of the thread used or the skill of the person who did the stitching. Don't know if anyone else has faced this problem or I was the only lucky one.
4. Choice to walk around and try different positions during active labour. I suppose one could do this if one fought for it as some have done but why should I have to?
5. While breastfeeding support is good and I understand the need for (and appreciated) the nursery, I would have liked a little more flexibility in when I could feed my baby. There were times when I had to wake him up when I knew he had just gone to sleep.
6.Clean toilets. The toilets were not exactly dirty... but urine (and the odd spot of blood on seat) was more common than I would have liked.

I don't mean to put people off the public system. It is good enough considering the price and if I had to, I'd do it again and wouldn't stress. But it is not ideal - and I think hospitals like Matilda try to be ideal in terms of accommodating the woman's wishes and making things comfortable. I delivered at United Christian and not Queen Mary - which I know is more accommodating but I still think there would be a huge qualitative difference in terms of experience. Labour is hard and I don't think it's silly to want to spend on making the experience as comfortable as one can afford (and I don't mean sea view or nice food...I mean what I listed above).
 
charade, i agree with you... but to me, what you listed is not worth $100, 000+.

if i had insurance that covered it entirely, i would do it in a heartbeat. but without insurance, it would not even be contemplated.
 
Yeah, at the end of the day, what a certain amount of money means to each person is really subjective and a lot depends on financial position. If you're going to be breaking the bank or really compromising on your kid's education or future healthcare to go private, then forget it - go public. If, like me, you're somewhere in the middle where the amount is not inconceivable (even without insurance) but yet not an expenditure that can be made thoughtlessly then there are pros and cons to consider.

I think it's good to keep in mind what your upper limit it - if 100,000 is your upper limit and that's what they quoted, I'd look elsewhere. I chose a hospital which quoted 60,000 so I have some margin for stretching in the worst case.
 
I just delivered at Matilda, and and an emergency c section. The midwives made it for me. They were so helpful with breast feeding, I had a lot of issues and they were just amazing to me. I actually cried when I left because I did not know what I would do without them. What people say is right though...the cost came out to be a lot more than I had bargained for....but of course emergency c section more expensive. Came out about 80K HK higher than we thought.
 
I think my reasons for going private are similar to charades. The private room and good food are just added benefits, the medical care and experience are definitely very different.
1. Pain - I don't want to suffer unnecessarily if I don't have to. In the public there are constrained resources, so that an anaesthetist usually can not put in your epidural simply for mild-moderate pain. Of course if you are having a c-section you will get one. I've had at least one friend who went private the second time because she suffered so much the first time, despite pleading for an epidural but not going feral about it at the staff (another friend was much more vocal and got the epidural but for me - do I really want that stress there and then?)
2. Choosing my doctor. Very important to me. Someone who will have time and patience to answer my questions. One person I can call when something happens or I am worried.
Also I want the doctor who puts in my drips to get it the first time, rather than after a few times. My epidural, I want it to be correctly positioned by someone who has done this a zillion times, not a trainee, not someone who only has 20-30 under their belt.
3. Episiotomy wound. Important for sexual function and bowel function over the long term, particularly if it goes wrong. I want as small cut as possible and for it to be made by an experienced person, cutting at the right time. I don't want to be allowed to tear.
4. Hygiene. As charade has said, whilst the public hospitals are not exactly dirty, I want the surrounds to be really clean, the toilets, my bed (linen changed as soon as it is soiled), I don't want to have nagging doubts in my mind as to how clean the surrounds are for my baby. I know a little bit of dirt/bacteria is good for the baby's immune system development over the long term but not from day dot.
5. The way I am told information and what will be done with it. I was told by my paediatrician that my baby had a heart murmur, and time given to me to ask questions and the implications explained to me in depth including what steps would be taken next. I was very upset when I found out. Some extra tests were performed immediately, a specialist paediatric cardiologist was consulted over the phone, and I was reassured it was a flow murmur and it went away in a few days. Contrast this to my lawyer girlfriend who was told by an intern (because it is an intern at QMH that checks your baby out if you have a low risk pregnancy right after they are born) that her newborn had a heart murmur, but couldn't answer any of the questions she had for the doctor. My girlfriend burst into tears with her husband by her side. A few hours later a slightly more senior person came to tell her more and what the plan for further management would be. She called us during that time for support. Sure their DD is okay, but I would not want that stress.
Yes, the public hospital is adequate and definitely superior if you have a baby which requires NICU, but we all bring our own evaluations to the table when you make these sorts of decisions, some of which includes finances, some of it includes the environment you want to give birth in, some are related to the doctor you want, ect. That is the beauty of HK, the ability to choose what suits you and your family.
 
Junebugwhite is right, if you were quoted the cost for a natural delivery and then it turns into an emergency C-section your extra 80K is not that out of the question. They do tell you this when telling you the cost but you may not remember it (it's kind of like the fine print on insurance forms), not emphasised.
 
yes, i agree, it is good that there is something available for everyone and every budget.

as i said before, if i'd had insurance there would have been no hesitation on my part whatsoever to go to matilda (and yes, i was a little jealous of all my friends who EVERY ONE of them delivered privately)...but having no insurance, both of us being self-employed $100,000 was at the time almost 3 month's salary.... not something i could fathom (even now that our salaries are higher can i fathom it... i have a hard enough time justifying $12k per person to fly to vancouver, just so it can be a direct non-stop flight! in 17 years, i have had 1 direct flight to vancouver! the cost difference is just too much for me... where as changing planes in seoul or tokyo only costs me a couple of hours)
 
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