Giving birth from Discovery Bay - calling an ambulance

K

kimdavis

Registered User
Hello Ladies,

I live in Discovery Bay (new in HK) and am pregnant with my first child.
I have tried to find out information on how the women who live in DB end up at the hospitals in town.
Some say they took the ferry, others say they called an ambulance.

Regarding ambulances, is there any cost involved in calling one?
In my country, they charge a hefty fee when you call them so I was wondering if that is also the case in Hong Kong.

I'm thinking of giving birth at Matilda or Canossa Hospital.
If there are any ladies who can share their experiences making it to their hospitals from Discovery Bay, please do.

Thank you!
 
when i lived in db, the ambulances would ONLY take you to the nearest hospital, which is princess margaret (?).

what you do is this:

get on the ferry and call the ambulance from there to take you to matilda.
you should have ample time if you don't wait too long after the contractions start (and if i were delivering at matilda, i wouldn't mind a few extra hours at the hotel...oops! sorry, i mean hospital!)

the ambulance was cheap... can't recall exactly, but it wasn't expensive at all.
 
or you can hire a car company or taxi to drive you directly to the hospital from the enterance to DB, or take a cab or car from the ferry when it reaches HK island to the hospital. know several people who have gone this route. close to the due date they got into contact with car companies and arranged to have a driver on stand by or guarantee that a driver will be available when they are needed. plenty of people in the US and UK drive 40+ minutes to the hospital after they go into labor without needing an ambulance. (all of this is of course assuming you are not having some sort of complication/ emergency in addition to being in labor, in which case an ambulance would be appropriate.)
 
There always seem to be taxis milling around the ferry terminals and I think in the circumstances, people are probably going to let you jump the queue! Disco Bay Ferry terminal to Matilda is approx 30 min drive in rush hour. You may just end up having to play it safe in terms of when to come over, but as other posters have said, a few extra hours at the Matilda is no great hardship.

Also, how pregnant are you? If you're new to HK you may not know but you need to get booked into the private hospitals early- ideally at 9 weeks.
 
hello
we live in DB too and I am pregnant with our second baby. for the first we called an ambulance (no charge that i recall which means it was probably not very much) and asked them to take us to the Matilda. they make you sign a form acknowledging that the Matilda is not the closest hospital and you have asked to go there so they can cover their backs.
 
Hello Balvo!
I am moving to DB and am prenant, I read your message and found it very useful. Did you call an ambulance from your place and ask them to take you to Matilda (door to door)? Did you just call 999 or what number did you call?

Thanks!

Balvo said:
hello
we live in DB too and I am pregnant with our second baby. for the first we called an ambulance (no charge that i recall which means it was probably not very much) and asked them to take us to the Matilda. they make you sign a form acknowledging that the Matilda is not the closest hospital and you have asked to go there so they can cover their backs.
Click to expand...
 
HI, I'm from DB and expecting my third which I am having at the Queen Mary. I intend to call an ambulance and am aware I have to sign a form to take me to the QM, many other mums in DB have told me this and I feel quite confident it will all go smoothly, especially as I usually have long labours so plenty of time to get there! Having said that I'm not going to hang around at home like I did in the UK, when those contractions start I'm calling the ambulance just to make sure I'm where I should be in good time. Its all a bit scary when you are not in your home country but I figure so many mums choose to have their babies in DB it can't be that bad! Good luck xx
 
In my opinion if your labour starts during the day or early evening when the ferries are still every 30 min I would get on the ferry.I did it for both deliveries.
Just to get onto the main road from the tunnel the ambulance will have to go via tung chung or sunny bay/disney big roundabout. I have a car parked in sunny bay so I know even with an ambulance it s at least 20 mins from your flat in DB to the first bridge in tsing yi. the ferry takes 25 min to central it s much quicker...
 
Hi Ladies,

I'm from DB too and am expecting my 3rd child, and he's due anytime. Here are my options to get to the hospital, depending on labour signs :

1. Ambulance service - 2987 7502 (this is the fire and ambulance service in DB, 24 hours and of course, you can call 999 too)

2. Take a ferry to Central Pier, then a taxi to the hospital.

3. DB VIP Hire Car service - 2987 1213 (This is direct taxi service, meaning the VIP Hire Car will pick you up from your home and send you to your destination, in which case, the hospital. The fare is $600 net. However, since there are only a few of these vans in DB they may not be available all the time so you may want to call them and check with them. You can pre-book, but in labour situations, you can never estimate. I use this service to get home from the hospital back to DB. The van sits 4 and you can don't need to get on the taxi, then transfer to ferry and then take a bus home when you're still sore)

Hope this helps!
 
sorry just saw all these replies! I just called 999 for ambulance. Hire car is very comfortable but often not available at short notice...
 
Are you sure you can still call an ambulance to take you to a private hospital? Last month (27 Oct) there was an article in the SCMP with this headline:

"Ambulances set to limit patient trips to nearest public hospital
Phyllis Tsang, 390 words
Ambulances will only take emergency patients to the nearest public hospital from the start of next month"

I've lost my SCMP password, so I can only get the headline and not the rest of the article, so not sure what the rest of the article says. Maybe somebody else can look it up for you?
 
I have lived in DB for 12 years and have given birth twice at Matilda. So far as I'm aware, an Ambulance will only take you to the nearest public hospital. My experience was:
Baby #1 - middle of the night labour (started around midnight). I caught the 3.30-4.00am ferry (I think it was then memory is a little blurred). It was the little hovercraft type, really not comfortable when in labour. I caught a taxi to Matilda from the Central ferry pier. Baby arrived at 10am.
Baby #2 - labour started around midday. Caught the 1pm'ish ferry (from memory, husband wanted lunch before we left?????) and a taxi again. Baby arrived at 2.50pm. I cut it a bit fine ! The ferry and taxi journeys were very uncomfortable, but at the time I didn't realise how close I was to delivering. The midwives told me that my next birth would be a home birth (as I wouldn't have time to get to the hospital), but there will be no no. 3 for us.

Make sure you buy/borrow a baby capsule before the journey home.
 
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