Baby vaccinations and check-ups at the MCHCs

R

RileyC

Registered User
I recall there being a thread somewhere on this forum where some mothers (even those who delivered their babies at private hospitals) advocated going public over private for baby vaccinations and developmental check-ups. Apart from the obvious advantage of such services being free in the public MCHCs , are there any other benefits to going public? Does the MCHC provide you with a vaccination record card so you can keep track of what jabs your baby has received? I'm also having some difficulty finding out information on how to register my baby at the MCHC, so any pointers on that would be helpful.

A recent SCMP article seems to indicate that waiting times are long and appointments are hard to schedule, especially with the increase in mainland mothers coming down to HK. Has this been your experience? I live on HK island (near Central), so would that make a difference in the waiting times at my MCHC catchment area?
 
My son's now 21 months and we took him to the sai ying pun MCHC for his vaccinations and check ups since birth. I'm not sure but I guess Central babies will go there too. Could call and check: 2859 8281 with booking time mon to fri 11am-12:30pm and 3:30-5pm (be patient and just keep calling as it takes a bit of effort to dial though).
First time registration takes half day I'd think so be prepared. Subsequent checks ad jabs take about 1-1.5-2hrs depending on whether doctor's consultation is required for that visit. I normally book the first slot in the morning (9am) and be the first one to get there! Then the waiting time is not too bad. There's a breastfeeding room and can change baby in the weighing room.
We got given an immunization record and health record which get updated every time. Must bring. Get a number after arrival. Wait to be called for your baby to be weighed and measured. Further wait to be called for nurse consultation. Nurse will check baby's progress and mark down on the health record and will give u an explanation sheet highlighting the vaccination(s) for the day and reminders of side effects. Then u'll wait further to be called into the vaccination room. U'll get asked what the vaccination is for today before they give your baby the jap just to make sure u know. After that wait for making next appointment booking at the counter. Then go to pharmacy (more waiting) to collect a bottle of panadol just in case your baby gets a fever after the vaccinations.
As u can tell, lots of in and out of rooms and waiting time. I'm used to it now so always bring stuff to keep my very active son entertained. Lots of people but I never have problem finding seats.
My son had jaundice earlier on and in the 1st and 2nd visit SYP MCHC referred us back to Queen Mary so my son would go into the box. I felt we were always treated by very experienced staff (though overloaded with too much work). No shaky needles~ Considering the cost I've never complained about the waiting. I don't work at the moment so can afford the waiting time...
We also haven't given any extra vaccinations as we thought we already have the bare minimum ones as recommended.
 
I've also taken my son there since birth (now 2.5 yrs) and am also taking my daughter there (now 10 months). We go to the one in Tung Chung but the procedure is exactly as Anne1212 explains. I get given an appointment time - not sure if you can actually choose. However, I don't work either, so any day/time is fine with me. The longest an appointment has ever taken is 2 hours - but that was only once. Usually it's about 1.5 hours. And the best time ever was 40min!
I think the public system is very good! They are very thorough and we needed to go back twice when my son hadn't reached certain milestones in time. All for no extra cost of course! They also give you heaps of reading material on child development etc, which I've never seen at any of my friends houses who go privately.
There are a couple of vaccinations that the public system doesn't offer which you can obviously get privately if you wish.
 
here's the previous link: http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread152761.html

Advantages - agree with Anne1212 that the medical staff there are pretty experienced. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the nurses I saw had enlightened attitudes towards breastfeeding v formula. They were very supportive of my exclusively breastfeeding. When my baby was 18 months, the nurse said to drop formula and switch to fresh cow's milk. We did not discuss the reasons but I was really happy to stop giving my baby formula. If you have a perfectly healthy baby and just need quick developmental checks (as was my case) then MCHC is fine.
 
I might be the only one who thinks the MCHC is a waste of time. After 3 visits to an MCHC, my wife and I vowed never going back there again. Here's how I see it.

Pros
Free
Nurses are friendly and knowledgeable. They teach you all sorts of techniques for feeding, burping, etc.

Cons
The vaccinations that you get from private clinics are better than the ones from MCHC. They cover more diseases.

Ridiculous waiting times. Weighing your child takes 15 secs, measuring your child's length and head circumferance takes 2 minutes, a vaccination shot takes 1 minute, and if you get to speak with a doctor, the consultation might last for 10 minutes. Yet, the whole process took 3 hours.

Crowded. The article in SCMP is very true. Lots of mainlanders with luggage and their "agents". You'll be lucky to find a seat.

We've had a terrible experience with the doctor there. I'm not going to bore you with details of my son's condition but in short, the doctor we saw just didn't care. We expressed several areas of concerns to the doctor and she just dismissed us by saying things like "it's normal and he'll grow out of it".

Sure, not everyone can afford to go to private clinics for vaccinations. But if you can afford it or have insurance to cover it, I see no reason to use the services at MCHC.

By the way, I'm the one who responded to that SCMP article in the editorial section. Here's what I wrote...


Act to curb abuse by mainlanders

The report ("Child health centres are overstretched", July 4) highlights how the resources of maternal and child health centres throughout the SAR are strained by the increasing number of Hong Kong-born children of mainlanders.

To make matters worse, most mainlanders ignore the stipulation that appointments must be made before showing up.

A doctor who works at a centre said mainlanders who came with same-day return tickets and luggage had to be vaccinated first for "humanitarian reasons".

I fail to see how having luggage and travel tickets means they get priority ahead of everybody else who followed the rules and made an appointment.

Citing humanitarian reasons is not valid.

It would only be inhumane if the child health centre refused to vaccinate their child.

There are two obvious solutions that I see for parents who just walk in without an appointment:

Have them wait until everyone who made an appointment is treated; and
Have the parents make an appointment and come back accordingly.
If they refuse to wait or make an appointment, then it is the parents who are displaying inhumane behaviour for refusing to vaccinate their child. The current arrangement just doesn't make sense and is extremely unfair.

Perhaps local tax-paying parents can take advantage of this loophole. For their next visit to the child health centre, just show the receptionist their bag and Octopus card.

Tell them you have luggage and travel tickets and that you expect to be moved to the front of the queue for humanitarian reasons.
​
 
JayJay, I think you need to mention which MCH as that could make a difference in terms of crowd. The MCH I went to never had a crowd of people with luggage, nor did I notice people without an appointment, nor was there ever a day when we couldn't find a seat.

The wait is long (can't remember how long), especially if you need to see a doctor. I loved the pediatrician at my MCH, so much so that I tried to get an appointment to see her when my son was generally ill but I was told MCH is only for scheduled developmental checks, vaccination and breastfeeding support.

My private pediatrician, on the other hand, doesn't do the detailed developmental checks that they do at MCH.

The number of diseases covered - I guess that depends on your approach to vaccination. I am fine with the minimum being covered.

That said, I ended up going private because:
1. Vaccinations are entirely covered by my husband's insurance plan
2. Both my husband and I work and going to MCH would require taking time off work. Our private ped is open up to 9 pm and on weekends so we can go conveniently then.
 
I go to the Anne Black MCHC in North Point and have never seen mainlanders there! Is it just an issue at certain MCHCs?

I go because our insurance doesn't cover vaccinations at all (although for SOME of them, we get them done at a private pediatrician as they are better there - but the ones that are the same, such as MMR, I just get done at the MCHC). I also go because I think that their developmental check ups are quite good and thorough. I would say for developmental issues, it's probably better that our pediatrician who doesn't have the same "checklist" to test at particular ages. The most I've ever had to wait was about 1.5 hours and the shortest was about 30 min. Not bad for something that's free, I think!!
 
charade said:
JayJay, I think you need to mention which MCH as that could make a difference in terms of crowd. The MCH I went to never had a crowd of people with luggage, nor did I notice people without an appointment, nor was there ever a day when we couldn't find a seat.
Click to expand...

The MCHC I was referring to is the one in Hung Hom. Perhaps the reason for all the mainlanders is because of the proximity to the Hung Hom train station which a gateway to Lo Wu and Guangzhou.

In any case, I stand by my remarks regarding how the paeds in the MCHC just don't care. In fact, I will go as far as saying all paeds in the public healthcare system just don't care.

If you're fortunate to have a full-term healthy child, then it's fine. They weigh and measure your child. They tell you he/she's on the curve and everything is just fine. You leave the clinic as happy and satisfied parents.

My children (twins) are not as fortunate due to prematurity. Each of the paeds in the public healthcare system that we've seen just don't care. I get the feeling my children's conditions are problematic to them and they just want to dismiss us as quickly as possible so that they can go on with their less problematic patients.

One of my sons have grown to dislike his feedings. When we told the paeds at QEH of this, he just dismissed it by saying "It's normal. He's just going through a phase and it will pass."
That's odd because we then took him to a private paeds doctor who specializes in preemies and she instantly recognized he disliked feedings because of mucus buildup in his nose causing breathing difficulties.

My other son has muscle stiffness. He's constantly bent to one side, his legs cross, his elbows don't extend, etc. The paeds at the MCHC saw this for herself when she did that thing where she grabbed both knees of the baby and opened and closed the thighs to check the range of motion. She said NOTHING even though it took her considerable strength to move my son's legs. We finally spoke up and said "His muscles are always stiff. Do you think he needs to see a physiotherapist?"
She actually said "Oh, YOU think he's stiff? He's just a bit stiff. I think you should just observe him for a while longer."
That's odd because our private paeds doctor (without us saying anything) not only acknowledged that the stiffness was serious enough to require physiotherapy but she also identified the cause of the stiffness.

Actually, I've had a couple more horific experiences with the public healthcare system. But that's a story for another time.

Bottom line is, if you have healthy children, then go ahead with using the MCHC services. There's no harm and it's free. But don't go in hoping for the MCHC to identify developmental issues that require further followups, reference letters, etc. It will only end in disappointment.
 
nicolejoy said:
I go because our insurance doesn't cover vaccinations at all (although for SOME of them, we get them done at a private pediatrician as they are better there - but the ones that are the same, such as MMR, I just get done at the MCHC).
Click to expand...
Interesting. Which vaccinations would you say are probably better in the private sector?
 
JayJay, I hear you and I can totally understand your frustration. It's unfortunate your experiences have not been good and that the MCHC was unable to do more for you and your children. I can see why the Hung Hom MCHC would be more popular with the mainlanders than the other MCHCs given it's proximity to the train station. I guess it's the workload, the sheer number of patients that need to be seen and the limited resources available. It shouldn't be that way, but I guess that's a problem that's found all over the world these days.

As I'm weighing up the pros and cons of MCHCs vs private, I do want to hear all the positives and negatives.
 
Off the top of my head: the Prevenar vaccine offered in the MCHC is the "Prevenar 10" which protects against 10 different strains or something, but the private pediatricians give "Prevenar 13" which has an extra 3 strains. Also, we chose to immunise our daughters against HiB and chickenpox - those vaccines are not offered through the MCHC so we had to go through the private pediatrician for those ones as well. Everything else, I believe, is the same.
 
JayJay - I'm really surprised and sad that you've had such a negative experience. Like you, I have a daughter who has had special medical needs. It was detected at 17 weeks of pregnancy that she had a possibly lethal skeletal malformation. Since then, I was followed very closely by the public hospital system, having a 4D ultrasound every 3-4 weeks, meeting with a geneticist who travelled from QEH to Tsan Yuk to see me, and meeting with the neonatologist who would be in charge of her care in the NICU when she was born.

At birth, she had problems breathing and other complications and she spent her first four months in NICU at QMH. After discharge, she has been seen by many specialists and therapists in the public system. So far, the different specialties that she sees are neonatology, ENT, plastic surgery (for cleft palate), pediatric dentist, orthopedic doctor, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and medical social workers. Some of the doctors I like more than others, some are better than others, but none of them I can fault on their medical expertise. My biggest frustrations are the long waiting times (once I waited nearly 3 hours for an orthopedic appointment) and sometimes the lack of "personal care" (although some of the doctors are brilliant at that as well).

I have found that in general, the doctors take all my concerns seriously. At the ENT appointment recently, I mentioned that hearing loss was common in her condition and while I know she can hear, her speech development was slower than my older daughter's and I was wondering if we could get her hearing retested - and they arranged that for me rather than just blowing me off. Also at our latest neonatology appointment, I mentioned that she seemed to be allergic to dairy and they referred me to the immunologist (yet another specialty) who will perform allergy testing on her.

This is my 2nd child, my first had no health complications and we always followed up through MCHC and had an overall positive experience there as well.

I'm sorry you have had a poor experience with the public system - but for many people, it can be and it is a positive experience.
 
we used the hung hom mchc too, longest wait was the first time, maybe about 2 hours? quickest record was about... 20 minutes, ran in, queue, jabbed, ran out.

the nurses were always friendly and very pro-breastfeeding. booking was easy since i always just booked when i was there for the next time, so i didn't really have to call in. my son had some issues when he was about 6-9 months old and we got a referral letter to the hospital in our area quite quickly too.

ps. maybe it's because we always pick weekday mornings to go?
 
I have been taking my daughter to the Lek Yuen (Shatin) MCHC for two years. Sure it's pretty busy but we have never waited more than 1 hour, apart from the very 1st appointment where we waited 3 hours for the paed to see baby. My husband and I would take turns to bring our daughter. It was workable for me to take 2 hours off work, bring her to the clinic at 9AM and be at my office at 11AM.

Yes there are mainland families there but none with trolleybags. They just look like regular families who live in the neighbourhood. The clinic is pretty busy but not chaotic. This is from 2 years of regular visits.

There were 3 vaccinations not on the MCHC list that I had done for my daughter at the GP: rotavirus, HIB & chickenpox. No big deal. I compared this against the vaccination package available at Union Hospital and realized how much I had saved in fees!
 
@nicolejoy
I'm probably as surprised as you are that you've had such a positive experience! I suppose it all boils down to luck and who gets assigned to your child.

Just like you, my children and I are no strangers to the public healthcare system. Due to prematurity, my twins spent time in the NICU. One spent 3 months while the other spent 5 months. The nurses and occupational therapists that looked after my children were brilliant and kind souls. The doctor assigned to my first-born was also great. She took initiative to reach out to us to update us. But everone else just made me want to pull my hair out.

I'm not going to hijack this thread with my rant but I'll say this. If you have any doubts at all about the quality of care in the public system, you're probably right and you would not be doing the wrong thing in seeking private healthcare.
 
Can I ask which hospital your twins were at? We were at QMH and do most of our follow-ups at QMH and Duchess of Kent. We have also been to QEH (geneticist - oh I forgot him in that list of specialists before!), the Prince Phillip Dental Hospital (they were BRILLIANT, the best doctor's I've ever seen in HK. Although technically are they doctors or dentists??) and Pamela Youde.

I do agree with you that WHOEVER you are seeing, it's wise to get second opinions and do your own research about things as well - and if you're EVER in doubt that your child is not getting the care they need, go to every single doctor you can until you find one who will take you seriously - regardless of public or private.
 
We've had pretty good experiences with the public clinics as well. The first time is always longest because I guess they have to register you into the system and you usually need to see the doctor as well. We don't have insurance that covers immunizations either so we're doing most of the shots there and then got the HIB one with the booster at 18 months. With that one, my little one actually experienced the most pain from so it seems that the nurses at the MCHC are better at it :)
 
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