to be shocked how much beoing in hospital is??

[lisad123]

DD2 has come home after we spent 5 days there because she had pneumonia. I am shocked how bad the bank has become over those 5 days.
They dont feed parents and I didnt want to leave her side, so lived out of the vending machines for first 3 days,and then sent sister on mircowave meals run, carpark for 5 days as i had taken dd in my car. cost of dh carpark when he visited, cost of extra's like toothpase and other washables i needed when admitted as dh didnt go home first of all. I know hospitals cant pay for fod ect, but surely they could more (like a less money grabbing shop) to help people in this situation?? AIBU??

My son goes into a local hospital on Friday for grommets - he has a private room (the children's ward is all private rooms) with a tv and DVD player. The kitchen has a fridge stocked with sandwiches for parents, crisps and biscuits and a coffee machine - all free !

It is a private hospital but they take NHS patients to fill in any gaps in surgery !

Free parking - and plenty of it.

Almost looking forward to our day there !

I loved hospital food

my dd was in hospital for 2 days in march coz she had pneumonia too .it was hellish
she didnt like anything to eat that they gave her .
i had to keep asking them to gve her something for her temp
i nearly starved to death.
spent a fortune in the hospital shop.

Our childrens' ward provides a free parking pass for parents, and often other relatives too.

The restaurant is expensive though - and the food the children on the ward are served with is dreadful.

How they are supposed to recuperate on cold chips and burnt fishfingers is beyond me.

Heaven help you if you are a vegetarian or have a specific dietary requirement.

We always take food in for DS.

'Regarding food - the only time that I was in hospital for any length of time I would order vegetarian food, but it never arrived'

Quite- one of the many reasons for my home birth was that when I was stuck there after having had ds1 (eclampsia, no choice, plus ds1 was IUGR)- not one meal served was dairy free, now if I have dairy I get very severe stomach cramps / diarrhoea / vomiting- hardly great for a Mum trying to BF her newborn!

We had to go withoput paying a few big bills that months to cover the cost of parking / meals.

The vending amchines here are crap-free I believe by law

If you have a child in it is worth checking with nurses/reception if you can get a free pass as it isnt information they just give you...if we hadnt asked the right person the right question we would have been paying parking for a week too

I did too Wily, I was surprised at how good it was and I am quite a good cook myself. It was actually very tasty. It must vary obviously from Hospital to Hospital

YANBU a hospital stay has many hidden charges which just aren't fair to the families of the sick.

Quite shocked at those who that lisa123 should have parked elsewhere or got DH to take the car home, in hindsight there are otherways to reduce the cost of a Hospital stay but if your child is seriously ill and the stay has been unexpected then its very hard to think straight and plan how you will organise and finance your stay all you can think about is you ILL CHILD.
How well would you cope in that situation?

Hospital food: I understand why they need to charge parents/family but there is no need to charge the way over inflated prices especially for food that is very very bad quality.

Lisa123 Best wishes to your DD, hope she is feeling much better.

YANBU.. When my nana was really poorly and we had to take her in like everyday it cost a fortune..!! parking.. food.. everything.. a nightmare.. but when she went in basically to die, they were a lot better.. we never paid for parking or anything.. they always made cups of tea and stuff for us.. which was nice.. as we were really "gone"..

The reason dh couldnt take the car home was he cant drive 2 cars at once. I took dd with me to A&E as didnt want to drag dd1 to hospital with me so dh stayed at home.
The hospital is miles away from us, and public transport is crap.
dh was still working, and dd1 was at school so only popped in for an hour or 2 in evenings.
I know they shouldnt have to provide food for me, but could at least ensure its not so exspensive.
And yes im aware they nurses are there to do watch dd and her machine but they were busy enough with very very sick children.

You need to explain, lisad.
Your OP was perfectly reasonable.

I live 6 miles from our local hossie - just 6 miles but I would have to get 3 buses so I'm ROLF at the thought that it has good public transport links.

And I absolutely agree with MrsHappy that they need parents there to help with care provision. I have spent many, many nights in hospital with dd and there is no way I would leave her alone. The staff are soooo stretched . That said, we have most often received excellent care.

OUr local hospital gives a reduced rate if you are at hospital over 4 or 6 hours and the last time they gave me a weekly ticket for that as it is the same as the reduced daily rate! Which was lucky as ds ended up being in for 3 days and had to go back for blood tests a few days later!
They also give parents a voucher to get staff prices in the canteen. But provide breakfast, tea & coffee on the wards (I think)
The childrens wards also have tv's, dvd/videos and games consoles for the kids to play at bedside.

Giving birth cost me over £50 in car park charges. I'd noticed the problem in advance and complained to the trust who said 'call an ambulance, then'.

AND we had to pay the sodding congestion charge.

Most hospitals do have schemes to help immediate relatives of long stay patients, but they probably aren't great at letting people know about them. Parking is a huge problem at most hospitals, because of the large numbers of staff that work there. I have yet to work in or visit (professionally) a hospital where parking wasn't a major gripe for staff. It is worth thinking about the sheer volume of people who want to use the spaces. The teaching hospital I last worked for had 2000 staff and something like 500 beds, so if you think about all the potential friends and relations there is a huge demand. In the middle of a city there simply wasn't room for a car park that would take that volume (bearing in mind that most hospitals are on sites that pre-date car ownership for the masses as it were). So the prices are there partly to try and manage that demand. Then of course there is the potential to make a bit of money on the car parking too (btw even where the car park is managed by a private company the profits will not all go into their pockets, unless the land and building costs were born by that company it's most likely under contract, or a partnership deal). Hospitals in rural and out of town areas should not have the same problems.

Regarding the food, in my experience bulk catering is usually rubbish, but the NHS should be doing better, and does it is fair to say, try. But the money put into food is still very small, because in the competition for resources catering usually loses out to the higher tech and higher profile services.

Services such as coffee bars etc are almost always provided on a contract basis, again as a way of making a little money, and improving the experience for visitors. It wasn't long ago that they were all McDonalds, so there has been some improvement on the healthiness front.

Many hospitals are running in tight financial circumstances, so the little things that would improve your stay have fallen by the wayside (many of these were provided by voluntary organisations in any case).

But it was not that long ago that parents were not allowed to stay outside of very limited visiting hours, so some things have changed for the better.

Its tough, but you're lucky to have the NHS. I really miss it. Here in Ireland I pay taxes. I also pay for health insurance (1600 euro a year for me husband and one kid). I also have to pay for every docs appointment ?55 a go, all medicines etc. I have an appointment next month to see someone about a skin problem - ?180 for ten minutes and the insurance only pays half. I have no idea how people can afford to be ill here, I am on a reasonable wage and can't afford it, so who knows how people manage on lower wages. So, sorry, but my sympathy is limited - the NHS is a great resource, and has to target its spending. So isn't it better that the cash goes on treatment, and not feeding visitors, parking etc?

I do agree that hospital food is a disgrace though. I gave birth in the UK and was in hospital for over a week - if it wasn't for my husband bringing in food I'd have been living on crisps and kitkats! My birth was long dangerous and costly ( over £100k I was told). So, no more babies for me, as I can't afford to pay that here! I wish all I had to pay was £50 parking.

Two years ago I spent over a month then dd a further 3 months in hospital. It nearly sent us under as the debt we got from it was disorganised and we occurred huge charges and later a riiculour rate loan. I say disorganised as in neither of us had time to stop and worry about money at the time. It would have been even worse if my mil hadnt given me her credit card details and told me to put my patientline onto it.

i started a thread about hospital parking charges yesterday. ours are £4 a day. also has a hideously expensive coffee shop type place.

i did the ready meal and got lisa some pot noodles on one of the days.

the hospital is very good (dd3 was there recently for an o on her fingers), but i do understand what lisa is getting at about not wanting to leave her dd2 side. her dd2 is `15months old, was on 02, and had tubes trialing over the cot, she got herself tangled in the tubing whilst i was there, so you really dont want to leave a child that age unattnded and a nurse cant stand by the cot the whole time watching one child to make sure they dont strangle themselves with tubing.

hospital food can be dire (harefield food is v v good by comparison, but then i may have just got to used to it lol). car park fees cost a fortune. the hospital lisa was at with her dd2, is also one of my local hospital. actually its the one that has the childrens a+e and childrens ward. so when dd2 was in we had to do a 10mile journey to get there, or get a train and then a bus to the hospital. to get there from lisas home on the other side of the town will also take 2 buses minimum, as the buses dont go direct there. (i used to live down the road and its the same hospital dh was dx at).

when your child gets rushed in you just dont think about packing a bag with supplies in it, so you do end up spending in the hospital shop or getting people to bring stuff in. when dd3 was in as a day patient, i knew she wold be nil by mouth, but didnt think about food for me so ended up in the canteen whilst dd3 was in the OR>

TEE2077 - good point

we spent over £50 on parking charges when ds2 was in hospital this year
i was also in the position of not getting any food supplied - the canteen was on a different floor and i did not feel able to leave ds2 (aged 2 days)
you don't eat properly - i had just given birth - ended up becoming ill myself and was transferred to different part of hospital with an infection - away from my newborn breastfed baby

I used to order food for patients who where nil by mouth (going to theatre etc) and give it to relatives who stayed with patients (elderly people who were dying, or patients who were very ill).

My manager found out what I was doing, and informed me it was theft (which technically it was). So I was given the option of continuing to do it, or be sacked.

When your little one is very ill, it is hard to think outside of the box of your childs illness. Please have some compassion.

I think some facilities vary by hospital. When ds was hospitalised in early 07. There was a parents room on the ward where any parent could help themselves to tea and coffe no donation needed. We were quite lucky as xp's mum drove his car back home but the parking for 24 hours was £18 and she brought food in for us.
My local hospital on the other hand has different parking charges and donations for tea and coffe on childrens ward. Maternity ward bring a tea trolley round at intervals throughout the day.

DS2 has had so many hospital admissions I've lost count. He also has alot of routine hospital appointments. I cannot think about how much we have spent on car parking charges over the years. The charges do differ greatly from hospital to hospital as well.

When he has a planned admission it's great as I know the parents kitchen has a microwave, fridge etc so I take food with us. When he is there as an emergency of course we are not thinking about anything other than getting him well again.

lisa, YANBU.

I am quite shocked by the amount of posts saying YABU and wonder if those posters have had really sick children. Really at the time the last thing you think or care about is if you are running up expenses- all you care about is your child not suffering and praying that they will be ok. It is afterwards you have to come back to earth and face ordinary life things like finances. It is incredibly traumatic watching your LO suffer through extreme illness and often there just isn't the headspace for other things.
I also think that you can not really care for a child/baby in those circumstances without caring for the parent as the two go hand in hand. As for expecting nurses to care for your child while you go off for other things- clearly those who suggest that have not been in hospital with a sick baby!