mazi

I tried but got fobbed off a lot and was not in the best frame of mind to go the whole hog - normally (you may have guessed) I see my complaints through to the bitter last.

For my money I DID get a nice picture of my womb (but no baby in it so it was a bit of a boring picture), a picture of my upper-skeleton which made me look very thin (in a skeletal way) and a picture (colour!) of the inside of my stomach which I bring out at parties and make everyone sick with after too much sauce.

So maybe the dosh was worth it?!

Littletoe

Oh, I stand corrected, our hospitals are second to none, I shall never make a comment about the NHS again. Good old NHS. You should probably write to the papers as well, I think they might be guilty of making false claims about the NHS as well.

Grayling

Well...as you think there is no MRSA in NZ here is a little reading for you:

http://www.surv.esr.cri.nz/PDF_surve...aMRSA_2004.pdf

SarahB

I had a baby here 5 weeks ago and have to say I had such a great positive experience. I had an elective c-section and it all went to plan. The staff in both Middlemore and Botany Maternity Unit (Auckland) were all fantastic. Even when I said Id decided to formula feed they were still great and supported me 100%. What a change from UK experience 3 years ago... I said Id never have another baby after my experience there, but risked having one here.....so glad I did.... now I have a beautiful baby girl. Thats just my experience of health service here so far. HTH

sky

Having worked behind the scenes in the NZ hospitals I could tell you some right horror stories but unfortunately can't tell cos of confidentiality and all that .
I've had quite a bit of experience of the A&E depts over here with my kids breaking bones playing sport and falling through glass doors and stuff and it's been excellent, I couldn't fault the care at all.

mazi

That reminds me, I do have a positive experience of A&E in NZ. About a week after a holiday in Vanuatu (where I'd tripped on some steps) my foot started going gengrene and Boyfriend rushed me off as I was gibbering and not making sense. They were great about that and even managed to make me laugh while they were sticking the 6-inch+ needle in my foot to numb it while they cut the rotting flesh away. They were even good enough to tell me a white lie (though they told Boyfriend the truth) and said my foot was black due to dried blood. Bless them , it was only a few days later when the super strength antibiotics kicked in that they told me it was actually dying meat.

Jude J

Oh good god. Did it heal completely then? Can a dying foot be brought back to life? Did anything go well for you when you lived here?

mazi

Yes, it did heal but I had a numb toe for about a year afterwards. It was the most ridiculous little trip too - all I did was graze my foot, it didn't even bleed much at the time (apparently there is something dangerous in the waters around Vanuatu which is BAD if it gets near a cut or similar. I can't remember the name of it now.). It's quite lucky that I started gibbering as I did because the hospital said if it had been left for another couple of days I would have lost a toe and if left much longer than that, well - that doesn't bear thinking about. It stank though. My God the smell was rank.

Did anything go well for me in NZ? Now, that's a silly Q to ask me!

(I must admit though I'm not very lucky on hoildays - I usually end up in hospital. I've got foot stories from Mauritius and Tunisia too.)

Littletoe

I never said there wasn't MRSA in NZ. I just commented on how lousy the NHS is. Which as a resident and tax payer I'm allowed to do.

sky

You didn't get offered a huge tank of gas and air to suck on then????
First thing they did for my son was rush him one of those, he was as happy as once that kicked in ... his eyes were like saucers and he was so in love with absolutely everyone in the dept after that point.

sky

The private hospital I worked at tested me for MRSA before I started but the public hospital never asked for tests. On my induction day I chatted with nurses from all over the world and they hadn't been tested either.