thread: Do you have to go private if you have private health insurance?

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  1. #1
    Registered User

    Aug 2006
    On the other side of this screen!!!
    11,129

    Just be aware that if you go into a public hospital as a private patient the hospital has no obligation to treat you any differently to any other patient - this means in many public hospitals that single rooms are assigned on a needs basis and not whether your health fund is paying or not.

  2. #2
    Registered User

    Dec 2005
    6,706

    It's private room based on availability and need, from my experience. So when I was admitted in the early hours of one morning with pretty bad OHSS I found myself in a shared room with one HG patient (oh the joys!), one who kept to herself and was quiet, and another who was pretty much straight out of surgery for endo. She SNORED!

    When the nurses saw me in the morning with tears pouring down my face because I'd had no sleep, they arranged for me to transfer across the walk way to the private instead of the public. Generally, for a short-term emergency thing, I'd just go public. You either won't be in long enough to mind or you'll be too sick to care. For a longer-term hospital stay, I'd be going private.

    BW