Hospital bill - WWYD

[Dk20]

Not an AIBU but want to know WWYD.

In Ireland, we've been allowed to have socially distanced garden visits if someone lives less than 5km from you.

Me and ds visited dsis and her ds. The kids were playing in the garden, they bumped into each other while running and my dsis ds fell and cut his head. He had to go to a&e which resulted in a hospital charge for them.

Dsis has said not to worry as accidents happen with children, but I feel like I should pay for at least half of the hospital bill. In my situation WWYD?

nowaitaminute If you used your GP visit card to go to the GP first, who referred you to A&E, you wouldn't have been charged for A&E.

@Destroyedpeople - From what has been described here it doesn't sound unreasonable.

We like to complain about the bad bits

....don't we all......

Back in my day, GPs (we're talking 30/40 years ago), would do home visits. I don't think they do in Ireland now though apart from to the elderly maybe. I remember the doctor being called to the house on a couple of occasions when I was a child. Why my parents didn't just go to the surgery I don't know. As a child, we had to be near death to be brought to the doctor. My parents were utter misers. I remember me being very sick on one occasion and my mother sent me into the GP with my Granny (medical card as pensioner), so that she wouldn't be charged. I remember getting an injection (don't know if anything else was prescribed). We were due to travel to the Great Britain dance comp in London the following day. Can't recall what was wrong with me, but I know I certainly didn't win any prizes in the dance comp.

Unfortunately the of the threes times, two times I went to a&e they were not cases where I had time to go to the GP first. (Once they were tended to and we were charged €100) the second time my dc was admitted for over a week so the charge was reduced to the inpatient rate of €85 (and we were then charged €85 per night!) But yes once I did bring dc to the GP and had a referral and it obviously cost nothing. All of those incidents and illnesses happened within 2months of returning to Ireland so we hadn't purchased health insurance yet 😫

Why are you creating a problem when there isn’t one? Your sis doesn’t expect you to pay.

Glad dc ok now!

There was also a case where my db (about 8?) had been unwell. DM made him get up and dance in a competition. He vomited when he got off the stage. She put it down to 'nerves'. Turns out he was dancing with a burst appendix obviously requiring an op and a week's admission.
'Negligence' doesn't cover the parenting we had! Very little to do with the Irish health service and more to do with the miserly parents I had.

On another note, you do have the cases of the elderly going to the GP once a week, just for the sake of it (free healthcare for pensioners). Sometimes, it's as much to do with their mental health (though they would never admit that) as anything else and is a sort of social outlet for them. A more cost effective method might be getting a public health nurse to visit them once a week. Not sure if such measures have since been introduced.

All the chat afterwards would be how many were ahead of them in the waiting room, the long wait (an hour max) and every ailment that every other waiting patient in the room had, plus who died and who got married etc.

OchonAgusOchonO

We like to complain about the bad bits

Until someone 'forrin' criticises us, THEN we'll defend it to the death haha.

I probably wouldn't pay. It's part of life. Maybe buy him a toy as a get well soon?! I don't know what the total bill was but when DH ended up in A&E by ambulance abroad where my Dad lives the total cost was about £400. We just had to suck it up.

The exception being the British who despise any criticism, even from their own, of their NHS.

'Save the NHS' FGS. It somehow appeals very much to the British.

If Ireland tried 'Save the HSE', the Irish would just laugh!

(Among ourselves, we are heavily critical of our health system). But God forbid someone else criticises it!

@whocanibe2day - Until someone 'forrin' criticises us, THEN we'll defend it to the death haha.

Of course. That goes without saying.

What's the saying Ochon? 'God and Country first'?

It's like I can criticise my dd, but if anyone else agrees with me and joins in, they'll soon find out it might have been better to keep their mouths shut.

@whocanibe2day - exactly

The Irish always love to say 'if it had been five minutes later they'd be dead'. Adds a lot of dramatic effect. Delivered in a sombre tone obviously.

Have you seen this Ochon?

I've an 'if it had been 5 minutes longer' story. (Actually a few, but I won't go into my entire medical history lol)

My first ever asthma attack and we were at the school bus stop (rural Ireland, privately paid for bus, so it was just a random crossroads in the middle of nowhere where the bus knew to stop). I couldn't breathe and my brother had the sense or common sense to realise that I was really unwell and called into the neighbour (whom I had never seen before in my life) to ask him to take me home.

Apparently (!) the GP told my parents that if I had actually gotten on the bus and driven the hour into school, I'd be dead. I think he was trying to impress on them how serious the condition was. My mother decided that it wasn't asthma and that it was psychosomatic. All in my head. What can you do with that level of ignorance? About a year later I was prescribed inhalers and the relief was unbelievable (only after about 6 chest infections requiring antibiotics).

My mother was a bit like Trump. When it became economically more sensible to get me the inhalers did she buy into the 'asthma shite'.

I lived in Merseyside, excellent gp services and quick referral to outpatients for an endoscopy.

In France we haven't had to use the health system yet but we pay for a top up insurance as only 70% is reimbursed by the state and a hospital bed is not covered as it's not technically medical care. A gp visit is €27.00 and prescriptions about €11. all reimbursed with our current cover.

@whocanibe2day - that's brilliant

@whocanibe2day - that's terrible. My db has asthma and I remember how scary it was when he had a bad attack. The doctor would be called out regularly in the middle of the night.

Ye it sucked because that day was when we were doing our swimming exams which I was so looking forward to. So I never got my badge. I was a week off school which also happened to be the week that they did aptitude tests and I missed out on that. I vividly remember the GP explaining to my mother that I need to be in bed as I was struggling to walk to the bathroom. She was having none of it. It was all in my head. Mad auld bastards! Haha.

@whocanibe2day - that sounds tough.