surfdude

Having recently read threads on here about how bad the Redlands hospital is, Iwondered if any Baysiders/Brisbane ep's have private medical insurance. If so, who with and approx.costs. In England we were insured by BUPA - they were excellent but it was a company scheme, so not so expensive. Any advice gratefully received.

andrew63

Shame know one has answered you.
I am on a 457 visa and having left the UK over 10 years, am not entitled to Medicare reciprocal agreement. My employer was horrified and now pays for myself and family to have cover with MBF. http://www.mbf.com.au/ I have no idea how much it costs. We have the "overseas visitors cover".
MBF have outlets in Garden City and Logan Hyperdome that I have seen.

May help a little. They look like BUPA type and you can get quotes etc. from their web site. A lot of Aussies I have met use them for "better" care than Medicare can offer - esp. for overseas cover if you travel.

Andrew

surfdude

Thanks for the response, much appreciated. Have tried the net for quotes, don't seem so straight forward. I was hoping someone might advise me on the basic cover, whether it was enough ect. Will keep trawling through the net.....

jad n rich

Paying $185 month, there is a cheaper one about $150 month this if for family cover, and the fees quoted are after the gov 30% rebate. You can drop extras (choppers/eyeballs etc) and get it cheaper still however to date its that bit we claim most on.

like all of them tho there are waiting periods, limits and gaps, could be here a year expalining that and only stopped for lunch but hope it helps.

surfdude

Who is that with ? How many in family ? Don't want to interupt your lunch, so when you have more time ! Thanks.

jad n rich

Medibank private, 2 adults three boys in family, think premium for family is the same no matter how many kids you have, check if they are covered tho once they get a job.

Wol

We joined MBF after looking around. They were at last clued up on the non-loading of LHC for those who start within a year and that went through OK.

They did also tell us that we could get the waiting period waived if we got certain statements from BUPA UK - apparently there's a reciprocal "transfer" arrangement which both subscribe to. This was a bonus - we hadn't heard of that!

We pay $108pm for a couple, no extras.

It's important to note that you don't get the cover here that you are used to in the UK - basically Medicare is used but the hospital cover does let you have a private room and to choose time/place for the op.

Trevglas

Try iSelect to compare the different offerings available.

glittababe

Hi there, Redlands is very bad, but take heart. Our littlen needed further treatment (after a big balls up at redland) and we're not back in the UK until Dec, so with a temp of 40.1 we rushed him to Logan. He was seen immediately by the triage nurse, given medication to lower temp and had a full set of investigations done there including a chest x-ray. After two unsuccessful trips to redland (one where after a 5 hr delay the surgeon had to perform an emergency op on son in the A&E cubicle), we headed for Logan expecting a battle and were so relieved! It was the middle of the night so when they said he needed an x-ray we were expecting to wait until the morning (at redland son needed an x-ray but the dr said they couldn't do one until following day)! We do have Medibank Private now, but we found it expensive. Its the basic family one (2 adults, 3 kids) and costs us $3150 a year, plus you can't claim for existing conditions or for the first two months of the policy start date (typical our son got ill just after we started the policy)! Can't wait to get back to the UK and have the good old NHS follow up his care!

ABCDiamond

The service at Redlands Hospital must vary, the same as most hospitals world wide.

I was referred to the Redlands Hospital in October at 6pm, and got there by 6.15, straight in to the triage as soon as I arrived, then on to a bed and being looked at within 10 minutes.

When I compare to my last visit to a NHS hospital in the Uk, After being rushed by ambulance to a hospital in Kent, I had to wait for about 3-4 hours on a trolley in the corridor before being seen, and then being operated on the next day.

However, when my daughter was born in the UK, the service was great, including being rushed to a London hospital for operations when 2 days old.


Someone else locally went to Redland Hospital for a check and they were sent straight into triage and thru to a bed in about 5 mins.
They were seen to immediately.
But the following week it was quite busy and they were waiting approx 3 hours before being called through.

I think we will all find similar occurances in both counties and it really is down to pot-luck, as to how busy an individual hospital is at any one time.

glittababe

It was poor service twice in a row though. I'm an emergency nurse practitioner in A&E so i know good, quality service and don't mind waiting 3 hrs to be seen if I know they're going to do the right investigations etc. The fact was the receptionist was rude until she realised we had private medical insurance, the triage nurse didn't ask the right questions and left us waiting in the triage room with an open drugs cupboard for over half an hour (we saw ourselves out in the end as she didn't come back), they failed to do the correct investigations and the dr misdiagnosed aaron's condition. All in all pretty slack! The dept wasn't busy, it was well equipped just had staff who didn't know how to use it! I've found so many people who have complained about Redlands hospital. Even the surgeon who had to do op on aaron was pee'd off with his staff, he was like "why has this been allowed to happen???" When we drove him to Logan the other night, the nurse asked why we hadn't gone to redlands and as soon as we said it she completely understood, apparently its a frequent occurance for people to travel miles to avoid going to Redland!