Don't ever call an ambulance in OZ

My son had one take him to the hospital last week for a bump on the head. I didn't want one, they insisted they should take him to the hospital which is 10 mins away from my house.

Got a bill today for $607,00

I wanted to drive him to the hospital myself, it's only over the bloody road, but they never mentioned it would cost me that much, jeez!!!

Great living here innit

I hope your boy is ok now R.

That is outrageous!

When OH collapsed at the bank the other week, people wanted to phone an ambulance for him too. As he is a nurse he knew what the cost would be so he refused! I didnt find this out till last week and was quite cross with him as i would rather he got looked after, but he waited till he felt better and drove himself to emergency department

Its shit eh, we have ambulance insurance cause im not driving yet.

makes you appreciate the good old NHS even more, just had a bill myself for my discharge meds that i got in hospital i thought you didnt have to pay for that but you obviously do.

Thing is they never mentioned any costs to me at all, i insisted i took him to the hospital as it is only 5 mins away, but they said no, they said he needed to be taken in ambulance as precausion.

I've been had, it's all a scam to get money...i won't pay it without a fight. I can see sense in afew hundred, but not 6

And thats the rip off part about it. There is no warning of charges. I know they are often dealing with emergencies which would make it inappropriate to mention money, but to do it for a bump to the head is ridiculous.

Funnily enough I just heard a lad on the bus today moaning to his girlfriend that a recent ambulance trip (the result of a drunken accident from what I could gather) to the very nearby hopsital cost him over $700

I must admit, at the time I thought he was blagging a bit but now hearing this story, realise it must be true!

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask, eh?!

If you have health insurance it may be covered under that. We're in Qld and we pay ambulance cover on our electricity bills!

Cheers

Ginny

Nu-Shooz;

Join the Ambulance service mate its $75.00 per adult that covers you for all ambulance trips for the year

Ambulance transport is very expensive indeed. My DGD needed to be taken to hospital and then transported to another one 2 hours away and the total cost was $2500.00 - fortunately her parents had ambulance cover, it's about the only sensible thing they do have!

Edited to say, I do hope your lad is fine now!

Good luck .I'm not surprised .Anyone have to deal with being overcharged by Telstra yet?. They cut us off because we paid what we owed them and not the overcharge.

They can be the most bureaucratic buch in the world.
No idea of service.A seriously backward place in many ways

No, we have never took out health insurance, cant afford it.

Never knew about that, but going back to UK in Jan so no point now i guess.

Not sure what it's got to do with Jesus! However the fact you have to pay for ambulances has always been one of my pet hates about Australia. As far as I'm concerned that is just wrong.

People should not have to think twice about calling an ambulance due to worrying if they can afford it!

The same goes for visiting the dentist. Although I think you now have to pay at dentists in UK too so it's not unique to here, but I know a lot of people who never see a dentist due to the cost.

Jesus wept is a saying we use in Yorkshire it means something else i can't repeat on here, check your karma though.

I have heard horror stories about ambulance charges so it was one of the first things we did when we moved here was get ambo cover.

We now have the 'top notch' health insurance which is a big fat rip off.

Ive just had a dodgy mole removed at a cose of $150 for the procedure, $76 for the consultation and $15 for the path test to check if it is cancer.

The doctor had to come out to my house in the evening to change my dressing and I told him I couldnt afford to keep paying for dressings that had fallen off as I had got hot and sweaty. He must have felt sorry for me and bulk billed the house visit to Medicare.

If this mole is cancerous I have to have more cut out and christ knows how I will pay for it because surpise surprise, Medibank do not cover skin cancer treated in a clinic.

Ive threatened to reduce my cover and they were really upset about it, but Im sorry when you pay for full cover, one would think skin cancer would be a priority.

Thieving gits.

Hope it all goes ok PP

See, this is what i dont get here. If you pay for private cover why should you have to pay ANYTING for your treatmetn? Surely thats the whole point having it covered? We just use medicare and I dont have to pay a cent for anything. I even went to a cardiologist a few weeks ago who wanted to charge me money and i said i dont have any on me right now, i dont have my purse with me... so... low and behold they just put it through on medicare and i paid zero!
All very confusing i think