Portland final bill

[SACM]

Hi there
I am trying to work out what I would end up paying for a vaginal and / or c- section birth here. I know what obstetrician's fees are and can see on the website the hospital fees but what did you end up paying everything else added I.e. athesthetics, drugs etc. what else have I forgotten?
thanks so much!

[MortifiedAdams]

Its a years salary for me, so not a chance of ever affording it, but luckily I dont live in London. Yet another benefit of living Up North

I had a private room for me and dd, food was good,.my MW stayed with me the entire time (16hrs) and I had lots.of care and attention all the way through.

[Roshbegosh]

I don't blame anyone for doing this but if the consultant is in the middle of an operating list or dealing with a complex case at the NHS hospital they can't just down tools to run and supervise a normal low risk delivery where neither the mother nor baby is actually ill. They are not such money grabbing whores. They would end up fired and up before the GMC if they neglected their NHS commitments like that. Usually a small group have a rotation for their private work so one of them will go.

[TakingTheStairs]

walterandwinifred you're correct, there were 51% sections in 2012 Maternity Statistics.

And they do have a nicu. One of the consultants I met with told me the Portland had the same level of care facilities as St Mary's NHS/Lindo wing so if you require more care than that, you'd be transferred anyway whether you were a patient in the Portland or St Mary's.

Here are the stats from the Portland website for anyone interested.

The Portland Hospital has an excellent reputation for the standard of care it provides to mothers and babies. Here are our statistics for 2012:

Number of deliveries: 1949
Number of babies born (including twins): 1988
% of Caesarean section deliveries: 51 per cent
% of vaginal deliveries: 49 per cent
Transfer rate: 0 mothers were transferred from the hospital post delivery because they required intensive care treatment.
Maternal deaths: 0
Onsite emergency facilities including an Adult High Dependency Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Special Care Baby Unit and a Transitional Care Unit
A planned transfer policy with our sister hospital, The Princess Grace, should the need arise for a woman requiring Intensive Care Treatment.

[Navycake]

The vast majority of the CS at the Portland are elective and on insurance. It works like this: you need a CS and your NHS consultant agrees, so you ask for a referral to the Portland (or wherever) and co tact your insurer to check under what circumstances they cover CS. Then see your chosen consultant and book in, and that's it. So they're picking up the women who would've had their sections on the NHS rather than being over keen on CS.

[Roshbegosh]

And the CS can be conveniently timed to fit in with the consultant's busy schedule whereas a normal delivery can't. Don't forget that important factor with private patients.

[Tea1Sugar]

A lot of elcs privately aren't for medical reasons anyway. Why should an obstetrician leave a high risk nhs delivery to be back on the beckon call for a private non medical elcs?

[Roshbegosh]

Like I said tea they don't, that is why they schedule CS's.

[bigkidsdidit]

I had my first in a London NHS ward and it was incredibly busy - didn't get a room till I was about to push, no postnatal care worth talking about. If I'd stayed in London I absolutely understand going private! As it is I moved to Scotland and e NHS care was wonderful as it was so much less busy.

Care varies hugely round the country and hospital to hospital.

Hope you have a lovely birth OP

[EspressoMonkey]

DD1 was born in a London NHS ward. Terrible experience. They made mistake, after mistake, after mistake, after mistake. I did not think it was possible for one hospital to screw up sooooooo much. To sum it up, they were incredibly ovestretched in every way. My NCT buddy gave birth the following week, in the carpark (different hospital), having been refused to be admitted despite telling the hospital staff the baby was coming and her DH was a Dr and bloody well knew.

Anyway this isn't a London NHS bashing thread (though said friend and i joke how OBEM must be a fictional scripted reality show)

DD2 was born in Switzerland. Fabulous treatment. My mother said it was "just like when i gave birth to you in NHS hospital in London in 1970s". Staff excellent, care excellent, faultless. And it cost me ooooo 600CHF for the 3 nights in an optional private room

DC3 is due in April. Am considering the Portland if we are back in London. I would NEVER give birth in an NHS hospital EVER again. Marking this thread, looks like my potential Portland birth will be £££££!

[Navycake]

Tea1sugar as I've just pointed out, most of the UK patients are on insurance, which only pays out if your CS is medically necessary.

[Roshbegosh]

Then the insurance companies should wise up.

[HolidayArmadillo]

I don't understand why having a consultant at a normal delivery is desirable. Other than that I can understand the desire for decent food and comfy beds. Which is why any more of mine will be at home as I can't afford 17k!

[Navycake]

What do you mean? The insurers only pay out if it's medically necessary - same as for any other operation/procedure. And in many cases (axa ppp for example) the policy limits are less than the actual cost so the patient has to pay the difference.

[fgr]

A lot of Portland electives take place at the weekend when consultants are off from their NHS work. Many consultants mine included only do private work.

[fgr]

Holiday it is down to personal choice,I would hate a homebirth with only midwives.

[Fairylea]

Slightly off topic but it amazes me how many people assume a straight forward c section is always going to be straight forward!

I chose to have an a elective section with ds at an nhs hospital due to birth trauma reasons from dd ten years before (ie no medical reasons, just dd was a very long labour etc).

They all assumed I'd be the easiest one so they booked me in last, obviously assuming they'd pop ds out, sew me up and whizz off to lunch.

Ermmm basically they found out I had severe placenta previa. I had no symptoms at all. No bleeding, nothing.

I had had sex throughout pregnancy, been doing light gardening etc. No pain. Nothing. I felt wonderful. I had 3 scans, one at 36 weeks and all was well.

I lost 3 litres of blood and had 3 blood transfusions.

I stayed in hospital nearly 2 weeks.

Anything can happen - unfortunately!

(Amazingly enough despite all this the care I received was wonderful and the whole hospital experience was amazing).

[fgr]

Kingrollo I always had a complete breakdown of my bills and the reason obstetricians bills are so.high is that their insurance costs have whacked up big time.

[fgr]

Of course you need a follow up.after a c section that is a stupid arguement. I could not give a toss after all your caregivers are not charities!

[LaVitaBellissima]

I gave birth privately at Queen Charlotte's and would highly recommend it. Luckily I had insurance and needed a c section for medical reasons, I had NHS care up until the birth so just had to pay about £1200 for items not covered. I would do it again in a flash!

[TakingTheStairs]

For those that were wondering.
EMCS, 5 nights in a standard room in the Portland was a hair under £13K
DS in NICU for two nights was an additional £10.5K

[ozmum23]

i read with great interest all the posts re NHS and portland. it is always an interesting read!

i had both DS born at portland ELCS. I could not fault the service and care. yes it is expensive and luckily we could afford it.

if we couldn't afford it, i would have no choice but to go down NHS route.

i get upset when people judge me because we went private. my husband earned the money, paid tax and use the after tax money to pay for our baby to be born. it is win win for everyone, because we got the care we wanted and didn't impose on chelsea westminster hospital!

like most things in life, you get what you pay for. their nurse to patient ratio is very low. the nurses were not rushed off their feet. i believe that all nurses go into the profession with the best of intentions but sometimes when one is over-worked the care will slip.

my DS1 was born in 2004 and back then, portland provides a celebratory dinner (complete with champers) for us! and also a portly panda :) we had a suite with two rooms so DH stayed over the entire time i was there - which was 7 nights. having a section is a major op and i was feeling rested before i went home.

in 2009 DS2 was born, and by then, they no longer provided us with a celebratory dinner. it was a gift pack instead!

when i look back on my birth experience, i have no regrets and have good memories.

having said all that, the birth is only the beginning isn't it?