after first docter consultation at matilda, totally confused about what to do, help!

[jill2012]

dear friends, hope you could help me out here, I am confirmed to be pregnant for 6 weeks after first consultation at matilda, but the docter who did the consultation is fully booked already and can't take me on for delivery expected Jan 2013, so she gave me a few name cards of other docters, (from various clinics', apparently docters practising at matilda are all from independant clinics, so does the midwifes etc)

I always thought, if you go a hospital, then the docters are supposedly from the hospital, so if a delivery package is quoted, then it should include the whole thing, but clearly this isn't the case at matilda. i was quoted the price for booking a bed there, (without having a docter yet), but that price is purely for the bed and food, docter &midwife charges etc will come on top of that.
my insurance (bupa intl) has a maximum limit of 80,000 hk$ for everything included of the whole pregnancy process, including antenatal &postnatal checks,
the cost at matilda is really beyond me, just that first time check (ultrasound, blood check and docter fee, it costed already 5500hk$, even if my insurance can cover the bed, i 'd be having difficulties paying for all the rest).

then i started to check the public hospitals, but does any one has any experiences how to register at a public hospital, and how to make sure that you can get a bed there?? also it seems the free antenatal checks for HKid holders are not performed at hospitals, but maternity centers etc, so do I need to register both at the hospital and the maternity center? how about docters, would they be from the hospital, or do i still need to find a docter pratising at the public hospital??

i am totally confused about the whole process.....
any one could share your experience here?

big thanks

 

[jill2012]

sorry, i went and read all the threads in this forum and now understand the process with public hospital now.
my question now remains, does any one has bupa intl insurance, and what's the best option to do? i was thinking about still perform the delivery at matida, but given antenatal checks are all so expensive i 'd rather go to the public maternity centers, but in that case would my private docter still take me on for delivery?...or should i do the reverse, by seeing private docters for antenatal checks and deliver at public hospital?? any other private clinics that's less expensive than matilda? thanks

 

[zzsp23]

is your maternity allowance per insurance year? When do you renew? I found that mine will be renewed about 3 months into my pregnancy, so I could claim my deposit for the hospital and all the prenatal checks up to the date of renewal, then I will start afresh with a new quota for the rest of the pregnancy

 

[carang]

public hospitals:

-find out which hospital you use for the area that you live
-call the closest Maternal & Child Health Care Centre
-make an appointment with them
-they will take you through the process
-you do not book a doctor or a hospital
-you attend your pre-natal care at the MCHCs and then when you go into labour, you go to the hospital (with maternity) closest to you
-your charts will be forwarded to the hospital (i believe) or you will be given your charts to take with you

it's very basic and straight forward with the public system, but it's a lot of hurry up and wait... wait... wait.

maybe you can consider being a private patient in a public hospital. it might be cheaper than matilda, you'd get the same dr all the time (which you don't as a public patient), you get a room to yourself etc....

 

[Honkyblues]

Even if you 'save' the 80K for delivery at a private hospital, it still won't cover the whole cost. I delivered at the Matilda, and had a straightforward natural delivery (no epidural), 3-day hospital stay, and it was still about 100K including doctor's fees. If you end up with an emergency C-section on a Sunday night, you could end up with a bill for 200K!

Also, I don't think any private doctors will take you on as a patient if you aren't going to go to them for regular checks.

 

[matemate]

one more thing 5500 is just the first check price. usual consultations should be more like 600-1800 HKD depending on doctor

 

[lesliefu]

there are cheaper hospitals - like Adventist, Canossa, Baptist (in Kowloon)...am sure there are others I haven't mentioned. from my own experience, i would just choose a doctor and go wherever he/she delivers. at the hospitals I mentioned above, you can choose double room / multiple sharing room (canossa) that will lower the price dramatically. matilda (and Sanatorium) are the most expensive i believe (from personal experience - delivered at 3 different hospitals all private) and yes, it's nice but if there's a serious problem, none of the private hospitals can really do anything - kid goes to QMH. i'd check with the hospitals (online) and see the packages...they are all quite transparent and no hidden costs.

anyhow, congrats and good luck!

 

[zzsp23]

Just be aware that some hospitals may not be able to guarantee a shared room, just whatever is available at the time so you may need to budget for this just in case you can only get a private room.
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[charade]

sorry, i went and read all the threads in this forum and now understand the process with public hospital now.
my question now remains, does any one has bupa intl insurance, and what's the best option to do? i was thinking about still perform the delivery at matida, but given antenatal checks are all so expensive i 'd rather go to the public maternity centers, but in that case would my private docter still take me on for delivery?...or should i do the reverse, by seeing private docters for antenatal checks and deliver at public hospital?? any other private clinics that's less expensive than matilda? thanks

It depends on what you're comfortable with and your budget.

For my first baby, I planned to deliver at a public hospital but did a lot of private antenatal checks. There are doctors in Hong Kong who are open to this arrangement. I saw Dr. Eric Lee in Prince's Building in Central who was very sweet and supportive even though I wasn't delivering with him. Later, I switched to a doctor in Tseung Kwan O closer to where I lived. Again, she was very good, even though I was clear about not delivering with her. I delivered public as planned and the entire cost I bore was exactly zero because my insurance covered up to 10,000 hkd.

For baby 2, I was determined to go private. However, since I was unwilling to put down a deposit of 20,000 at adventist/santarium, I opted for Baptist instead where the deposit was hkd6000. My doctor was Dr. Jimmy Mak. I told him I would like to avail of the free testing and check-ups at the public hospital and alternate check-ups with him. he was fine with it. My baby was in breech position and since he knew I wanted a natural delivery, he suggested I could try an ECV, which would have to be done at a public hospital. He wrote a letter for me requesting their urgent action, even though he knew I might end up delivering public if the ECV didn't work and he would lose a patient. He didn't push me into a c-section at any point. I really respected that. As discussed with him, the cost of a natural delivery at Baptist would be around 60-70,000 and the cost of a planned c-section would be 70-80,000. An unplanned c-sec would be at least 10,000 more and really, it's hard to estimate the cost for that.

In the end, I had to have an unplanned c-sec and I delivered public again, since I didn't want to be stressing about costs during my delivery.

With a budget of 80,000, you could opt for Baptist or Union in Sha Tin. That should cover your delivery. Your antenatal checks could be about 15,000. Mine were about 10,000 both times but I did the testing as much as possible in the public system.

Hope that helps.

 

[jill2012]

Ladies, thanks so much for your quick feedbacks, already feeling a bit less stressed;-).
Just checked my insurance policy, it's indeed per calender year, though unfortunately the policy starts feb-each year, so my birth in Jan 2012 will be exactly before the next calender year, hence all cost associated with delivery and checks will have to come from this calender year.
apparently the 80K limit is for natural birth, with C-section, upper limit is 160K$, for the delivery.
though antenatal&postnatal limit is an additional 20K $'s, so I am now searching for a OB that's preferably won't be as costly as the most popular ones do. (charade thanks for sharing your detailed experience, I will check if I can also go to Eric Lee)

As to Matilda, gee, 100k for 3 nights and natural births? ouch, I put my name down for 5 nights, twin room, haven't paid deposit yet as still need to shop for a OB.... but supposedly if a C-section, it will definitely go beyond 200K...

In that case, i guess the safest is to go two routes, one is public, (at least registered for a place just in case), then follow Carang's suggestion, to go private at public hospital, hopefully a little less expensive.

Does any one has experience with Queen Mary Hospital private? anyone know any OB's practicing at QMH?

Many thanks again ladies and love you all