Private maternity in London - how much does it cost???

[Elizad]

Hi
Can someone let me know costs all in for Elective CS at LINDO, PORTLAND and CHELSEA? I know it wont be exact but to get a rough idea would be so fab...each website itemises most things but there is so much I have no clue about ( bloods, scans, consultant fees)

Thanks

Each consultant has their own charges both for the op and for their care before and after. You need to contact each consultant's secretary for a quote. Then there's the additional costs of the theatre, room costs and scbu if you need it at the portland.
The charges you're quoted as a private patient are far higher than those quoted to the insurance companies as they negotiate keener prices, so if you can go through an insurer that's better even if you pay the bill yourself.

You're looking at about £15k for a straighforward ELCS but the costs soar as soon as there are any complications. My DS#1 was in scbu for a few days and our final bill, which took months to sort, was £28k.

Thank you so much, will contact direct. Just good to hear straight from the mothers as opposed to the dr as there always seem to be hidden costs

Hi, I'm with Mr McCarthy at queen Charlottes, looking at total bill around the £10-11k mark for a planned csection, this is consultant and hospital fees. Not sure if it is the same with all private wings at NHS hospitals, but if there are complications, then your baby is cared for under the NHs, there are no private facilities for SCBU, only NHS. However if you needed an extended stay in hospital because of complications with you they do charge for each additional night you are there, I think around the £400-500 mark.

Basically the costs fall into two categories. There are the consultant's fees and the hospital fees. With a bit of mix and matching and taking a minimalist approach y having most of your ante-natal care on the NHS you might squeak in for around £8K for an ELCS. At the other end of the scale, you could easily spend £20K by having fully private ante-natal care and a 5 day stay at the Portland.

Consultants' fees range from about £6K to £1500 (this is the lowest I found - but this is just to do the section and see you once beforehand, no follow-up care). The range depends on how early you start your pregnancy care. Usually scans and bloods are extra.

Then there are the hospital fees. It's difficult to compare like with like as the quote is usually a set fee for ECLS + x no of days and then a charge for additional days. The problem is that there's no standard no of days. The Portland is one but I don't know about the others. You have to pay anaesthetist fees on top.

If you want to spread your geographical net a bit wider, you can also get private maternity at King's, Kingston, and Watford as well as St Thomas's and at QC.

My consultant was £6500 from the first scan right through to elective c-sec and the Portland's fees on top of that were around £12-14,000.

Can I ask you where fees were as £1500. Am keen for a elcs but don't have the funds !

Oops and I nearly forgot - £750 for the anaesthetist which I'd erroneously assumed would be included in the Portland's bill.

I went to look for you and it seems that fees have gone up since I last looked! But £2 000 is still I think about as low as it gets for a private section. Mr Dennes Pat O'Brien at HSCFW is also £2 000 but only does private work at the Portland which immediately puts you in the £10 000+ bracket.

I seem to remember also that Mr Sajjad Ali advertised ECLS for £750 but this was at John and Lizzies which doesn't do maternity anymore. I'm not sure where else he practises. My computer won't connect to his website for some reason but you can still google him.

Serious question: why do you go private? Is it for the private room afterwards, or do you genuinely think the care is better?

Well, arguably the care might be better in that you are guaranteed the time, attention and expertise of a consultant as opposed to an SHO, registrar, or midwife. If you know you are going to have or want an ELCS, then you might as well go straight to an expert straight away.

But the real benefit IMO is in the post-natal care:

one on one midwife care (and other forms of help: lactation consultants, physiotherapists and nursery nurses)
food and drugs brought to you as and when you need them
no pressure to be discharged before you are ready
husbands/partners can stay overnight with you which helps with recovery and bonding.

Private rooms and bathrooms are really just the cherry on the top.

Ah, okay. Thanks for the info. :)

We don't perform an elective lscs - that's what's wrong with midwives.

Normal birth has no place for some people and Doctors are Gods, after all.

It's the American system of care isn't it? Can't fathom why anyone would choose an OB to do a normal delivery over a midwife. I would get into awful trouble if I worked there - I would wrestle the OB out of the way! At the end of the day if a woman wants to pay for a private CS - and that's why they pay - people never pay for hospital based midwifery care, do they - that's their choice, no questions asked. But I will stand up for my profession: a midwife's expertise, skill and knowledge in normal pregnancy and childbirth. No OB is 'better than me' in that respect as implied by ghislaine.

Laluna,

Having watched my wife have 2 NHS births there are some issues not related to the expertise of the midwife and also to the expertise of certain midwives.

Firstly, you are not guaranteed supervision at all when you need it. During my wife's VBAC, the midwife claimed she was not yet in active labour despite regular strong contractions, vomiting and her waters going. This was about 2 hours before she delivered. The obvious reason was that were the notes to have read active labour, she would have needed a midwife with her and constant monitoring. There was a large haemorrhage at the time so there were no rooms or midwives available on the labour ward, so easier to doctor the notes than admit that they failed my wife and put her at risk. Secondly, epidurals are often not really available. They say you may need to wait but, when my wife asked for one with our first son, the wait was 3 hours and, with our second son, she only got a spinal block in theatre when they had to deliver quickly by forceps.

As to the midwives themselves, I am sure you are great but some are very junior and lack basic qualifications. Again, during my first son's birth, my wife became dehydrated but the midwife we were with was not "qualified" to canulate, so she had to wait quite a while to get some basic fluids.

There are sound reasons to go private, although personally I would not be enthused to pay what it costs, as, ultimately, if things become a real emergency, the NHS does come into its own. That is not a criticism of any individual midwife, some of whom are superb and certainly know more about normal delivery than some obs.

We compromised with a private midwife, which was really helpful and costs more like £4k and for that, you get a midwife of your own choosing, contactable 24/7 pre natal checks at home and her there as your "advocate" at the birth.

Thanks - that info has been good to read and I see some of your points. I wasn't aware that private midwifery in a hospital setting is available.

Laluna,

As far as I know, it is not. They can be your advocate and, obviously, in extremis, will intervene, even if not really allowed to.

Didn't mean to spark a war with my comments! I simply meant that in the OP's case, when you're going to give birth by c-section, it makes sense to meet and start building a relationship with the person who's going to perform the operation earlier rather than later. Continuity of care is something I think we can all agree is important in pregnancy.

I have no truck with midwives, I had great care from them from the moment I was admitted to the moment I was discharged. I had the same midwife at my side or on call from 10am till 5pm on the day of my section. Interestingly, quite a few of the midwives who looked after me during my stay said that they normally had posts at London NHS hospitals but preferred working privately from time to time as it meant they could actually do the job they were supposed to do and do it properly.

Of course you can have a midwife led VB privately, but that's not what the thread is about.