Seeing private OB, what about public?!

dressuphk

dressuphk

Registered User
Hi I am seeing a private OB and will delivery in private hospital as well. But last month I was nervous not being able to get a bed so I booked with QM, now that QM appointment the end of this month and actually on the same date as my private OB appointment...

I am wondering whether I should cancel my QM appointment and only see my private OB? Or I should go see both？ My OB told me as I am HK resident I am entitled to free check ups in public hospital, which can save some money on some private check up... But for me it just looks a bit complicated.

Any good suggestions?
 
reschedule your private OB appointment, that is what you pay them for flexibility and go to your public appointment (because you don't really pay (much)) they're much less flexible
 
Thank you mummymoo, I just looked at my calendar again my private OB appoinment is 1 day before the public appointment. In the women's clinic (private), after 2 weeks they will do a down syndrome test & scan + blood test -- second blood test forgot what it is for. I am just afraid that all these test might have already been done prior to my public appointment ( I don't know what they will do to me yet for the public appointment). It doesn't make much sense to do the same test twice, does it? When I think about this I am just not motivated to go to the public hospital.
 
In the private clinic, you will pay about HK$3000 or so for the Down's screening. In the public hospital, it is generally offered free. You might want to cross check with them if they will offer it to you free but my understanding is that if your first appointment is before the 13 week mark, then they will. So it's up to you whether you want to pay for it yourself privately or if it's covered by insurance privately.

Your initial point was that you wanted to keep the public route open until your bed was confirmed at a private hospital. In which case, I'd go to the public appointment, especially the first one. If you choose to do certain tests privately, you only have to tell them. They are quite happy to save public money. They request that you give them a copy of your test results so that should you deliver at a public hospital, your records are updated. You can skip public appointments later, if you wish, and again, you just have to tell them that you'd like to skip some. And finally, if your private bed is confirmed, you can always drop the public appointments then.
 
If I were you, if I had insurance and a confirmed bed in a private hospital, I would forget the public hospital completely and just go private for everything. You'll be saving yourself hours of time, and your insurance will foot the bill anyway.

If you don't have insurance, then you could go public to save money on certain tests - but honestly, you're not going to save THAT much anyway... it's only really the initial blood tests and the downs screening test that you could save money on. Oh and the glucouse tolerance test...

If money is not an issue, I think that public hospitals are more hassle than they are worth. If you want for them to have your case on file just in case of emergency, you can go just once when you are 30+ weeks and give them a copy of your private doctor's report. Then you'll be on file, it will simplify things if you DO have to deliver there for some reason, but you're not wasting hours of your time for each appointment...

Obviously it's up to you, but after two kids in the public hospital, that's what I would do if I had good insurance ;)
 
Oops, the cost of the Down's privately is about HK$1300-1600. The morphology scan at 20 weeks (which they don't routinely offer free in public anyway) is 3000. The glucose test in the public system is only done if they detect something of concern in the urine test or if there is a family history of diabetes or something else to indicate you need it.

I think it all really depends on what kind of budget and insurance you have. For my second baby, I was pretty sure I'd be going private - I even had the bed booked - but I still got whatever tests I could get free from the public system. Even if the saving was 3000hkd, I'd rather save that. I also used them as a free second opinion on certain issues. But I tended to skip the appointments that didn't involve some testing.

I'm not sure you can just turn up at 30 weeks and it will be hassle free registering in the public system. I'd check around to make sure others have done it.

At the end of the day, it really depends on your budget and insurance. I was so sure I'd be going private but I ended up needed an emergency c-sec and that would have been way over my planned budget, so I ended up going public. I'm glad I was in the system.
 
You can register at any time during your pregnancy - of course if it is later, they want to see more medical records, but it is easy to do. Now if you hadn't had ANY check ups in those 30 weeks, it might be a hassle, but if you are simply "transferring", it isn't that bad. With my first, I don't think I registered with the public system until I was about 25 weeks or so (can't remember exactly, but it was later than usual). I just took a letter from my private obgyn and reports from my ultrasounds/blood tests etc.
 
Thank you all for the suggestions! Really helpful info. I have just discussed this issue with my hubby. My insurance doesn't cover maternity cost at all but money is not an issue for us. After hear all advice I decided I should go to private hospital only just to avoid the hassle.

Nicolejoy, is it necessary to register with the public system? Btw I have already booked a bed with St. Paul.
 
It's not absolutely necessary to register - if you show up with a HKID card in labour, you'll still get a bed and be admitted etc - BUT you'll need to take medical history etc and while you're in labour, it will be more difficult than just being admitted and that's it. Honestly though, the chances of needing to go to a public hospital are small so up to you if you want to pre-register or not.
 
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