Sunday, August 06, 2006
A tour of the hospital
We've been to the hospital a number of times over the course of Libby's pregnancy, but we thought that we should do a tour of the hospital to familiarise ourselves with what happens on the day we really need to go there.
The hospital conducts tours every Sunday for just this purpose and we trucked on down (Libby's moving along quite nicely now) to the hospital for a look.
To summarise.
A few thorny questions came up at the Q&A after the tour, however. Apparently, the private birthing rooms have baths and air conditioning, whereas the public birthing rooms do not. A question was asked as to whether a public patient use the bath if requested.
Now I'm all for maximising the use of resources, but an interesting situation arises if you're a private patient and the the private birthing rooms are taken. Tough shit. You've just paid for a public birthing room. This sounds all pretentious wanker-like, and I totally understand that. But if I am going to PAY for the privilege of all this private care, then I should bloody well get it, don't you think?
The proper answer to the question of having a bath should be: "go private". The actual answer: if they're not being used. Like I said, that sounds completely fair enough from a utilisation point of view, but a practical outcome is that a private person does not get what they paid for.
Would you get all out of shape if the hotel you stayed at didn't give you the room you paid for? I rest my case.
Interestingly, the same answer applies if all the private maternity rooms are taken. You get to share a room with three other happy mums and four times the number of visitors you'd expect if you had your own room - which you had paid for.
The hospital conducts tours every Sunday for just this purpose and we trucked on down (Libby's moving along quite nicely now) to the hospital for a look.
To summarise.
- Pregnant chick enters labour.
- Call hospital let them know you're coming.
- Go to hospital
- After 8pm press intercom, instruct child bearer to hold legs together
- Establish credentials, chuck wife on gurney if required.
- Go to maternity ward and birthing room.
- Administer gas
- Administer gas to wife if required
- Have a kid
- Go to maternity suite (if you're a private patient)
- Hang around for a few days
- Come home with family.
A few thorny questions came up at the Q&A after the tour, however. Apparently, the private birthing rooms have baths and air conditioning, whereas the public birthing rooms do not. A question was asked as to whether a public patient use the bath if requested.
Now I'm all for maximising the use of resources, but an interesting situation arises if you're a private patient and the the private birthing rooms are taken. Tough shit. You've just paid for a public birthing room. This sounds all pretentious wanker-like, and I totally understand that. But if I am going to PAY for the privilege of all this private care, then I should bloody well get it, don't you think?
The proper answer to the question of having a bath should be: "go private". The actual answer: if they're not being used. Like I said, that sounds completely fair enough from a utilisation point of view, but a practical outcome is that a private person does not get what they paid for.
Would you get all out of shape if the hotel you stayed at didn't give you the room you paid for? I rest my case.
Interestingly, the same answer applies if all the private maternity rooms are taken. You get to share a room with three other happy mums and four times the number of visitors you'd expect if you had your own room - which you had paid for.
# posted by Sherlock @ 8:31 PM 
