Procedure for getting private hospital room?

M

Mel

Registered User
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My son and I are on VHI Plan B +Options. He was recently hospitalised for observation, and he was put on public ward, 6 beds, until his condition worsened and he required to be isolated and was put in private room for remainder of his stay. This was just a result of his being contagious however.
My question is that there were private rooms available when we got to the hospital but he wasnt given one. Are you entitled to a private or semi-private room based on the VHI plan paying for it, or does this simply cover you if you happen to be assigned to one?
 
Mel said:
Are you entitled to a private or semi-private room based on the VHI plan paying for it, or does this simply cover you if you happen to be assigned to one?
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The latter as far as I know. Private health insurance cover for semi-private or private accommodation does not automatically guarantee that you will get this even if such accommodation is available at the time of admission/stay. I think it also depends on other issues such as hospital resource planning/allocation, you explicitly asking if such accommodation is available etc. A family member was once in hospital with such cover and only got a private room when we explicitly asked about it.
 
I thought that might be the case - I didn't really want to make a fuss as when we went in he wasn't very ill.
It was a great relief to have some privacy when he was moved though. He's well now which is all that matters and fingers crossed we won't be back there again any time soon.
 
Ask the VHI or hospital what the procedure should be in such circumstances. I can't see anything obvious about it on their website.
 
by going private with your VHI you are recieving private care from the Consultant, you must however ask for private or semi private accomodation. the bulk of the time this type of accomodation may not be available as these rooms are usually used as isolation rooms so it depends on weather there are any available or not.
 
Excuse my ignorance, but what is 'private care from the consultant'?
Would all of the children on the ward not see the same consultant on his/her rounds? Or are they seen by the junior doctor (who introduced herself to me as 'the paediatrician' on her visit)?
 
Mel said:
...Are you entitled to a private or semi-private room based on the VHI plan paying for it, or does this simply cover you if you happen to be assigned to one?
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If one comes free you get it. But with the shortage of beds and staff you'll be lucky to get one. We fought hard to get a private or semi-private for a family member (who was entitled to it) as a public ward was un appropriate for their condition. But got nowhere.
 
Private care is when you see the Consultant at all times, sometimes you may only see the Consultants registrar...Junior doctor you are not gaurnteed to see the consultant at all times when you are a public patient
 

Different patients on the ward may be tended to by different consultants. With fully private care, you chose your own consultant and this consultant personally looks after you.

With public care, whatever consultant or doctor is on public duty that day looks after the public patients.
 
Really? my son was seen by several different people - 2 junior doctors (one definitely junior, other may have been a registrar or SHO), an on-call paediatrician and the consultant paediatrician... granted this was over a weekend so I suppose the consultants aren't on duty then.
 
As a private patient your son was seen by the consultant, this would not necessarily happen if he was a public patient. Room availability is not guaranteed in a public hospital as quite rightly it is decided on the basis of need e.g a public patient with an infectious condition will get one ahead of a private patient.Just one thing, be sure to notify the VHI that he was treated in a public ward for some of his stay as sometimes one can be blled for private accommodation in error and if there is direct billing to the VHI one doesn't notice. In that case the monies due are considerably less. As a VHI member you have a vested interest in making sure that you only pay for what you got.
 
Yes, it's right that rooms should be allocated on need rather than insurance.
There is a huge difference in comfort levels between the wards and the private rooms though; the nurse on duty wouldn't even allow us to have the curtains drawn a little way around when we were on the ward; i'd pull them, she'd push them back, it was like a mexican standoff in the end .
We were only there a few hours before he was moved, so I don't think it will make a difference to the bill.
 
Mel said:
the nurse on duty wouldn't even allow us to have the curtains drawn a little way around when we were on the ward; i'd pull them, she'd push them back, it was like a mexican standoff in the end .
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Did she explain why? Unless there was a sound medical/care reason for this then you should have stood your ground. Hospitals generally have patient charter/complaint processes and officers for dealing with problems like this.
 
ClubMan said:
Did she explain why? Unless there was a sound medical/ care reason for this then you should have stood your ground. Hospitals generally have patient charter/complaint processes and officers for dealing with problems like this.
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She didn't explain Clubman, but I didn't ask either. Not being used to hospitals I thought it might just some daytime policy.
 
Various VHI and other health insurance schemes are sort of semi private. Most are a half way house between fully private and fully public. The different plans i.e. VHI A, B, C etc. outline where in the spectrum between fully private and fully public the care will be.
 
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