24 hour surgery

[bobc]

So, here in Chch, there is a privately owned facility for after hours care and being new to the NZ health care system, I'm trying to understand why someone would use this service, giving the following:

• Since it's private, I would have to pay, or my insurance would.

• If I had a broken bone, why not go to a public hospital? Is it true that the wait times can be ridiculously long?

• They offer Acute accident care offered as an alternative to an Emergency Dept. What would the benefit be?

I can understand the usefulness if someone wanted to see the equivalent of their GP after hours but based on my history, this is a rarity. If I'm really sick, I've headed to the Emergency Room (in the US). Again, is it true that the wait in the Emergency Dept. are really that long that it would be better to go to a private facility such as this? What's interesting is that in their brochure, they state, "You will probably need to wait for some time to be seen..."

Any insight?

Cheers,
-bob

[Duncan74]

Wait times. Someone went over on their ankle at a charity event I was helping run a few weeks ago. Took her to the ER for an x-ray, wait was going to be 4 hours. Just round the corner there's a private minor injuries clinic that was $35 and she was in within 5 minutes of arriving there.

[mylesdw]

The after hours medical centre is useful if you have a health issue that is not an emergency. I went there once when I'd got something in my eye. It wasn't wildly expensive, around $50 I think so much the same as seeing my GP.

The wait in A&E varies I think, late at night when all the drunks are in it can be quite long. I managed to break my arm in a log-splitter the other day and I was in with the mangled arm and out with it in a cast in 90 mins!

The out patients service was pretty impressive too, change of cast, X-ray and doctor in 25 mins.

BTW: If you have a broken bone the medical centre will send you down the road to the hospital anyway.

[Duncan74]

BTW: If you have a broken bone the medical centre will send you down the road to the hospital anyway.

Don't know about the specific one mentioned in the OP, but this is not the case in TGA - they have an x-ray machine and can do everything there. We initially went to the A&E to be advised by reception that we could go down the road and they woiuld be able to see her straight away.

[dilanium]

Some of those places are kinda like an urgent care center.

Personally I'll go to something like that over A&E any day just because I don't like hospitals.

[mylesdw]

Don't know about the specific one mentioned in the OP, but this is not the case in TGA - they have an x-ray machine and can do everything there. We initially went to the A&E to be advised by reception that we could go down the road and they woiuld be able to see her straight away.

A friend of my daughter's broke her leg ice skating. We took her to the medical centre who did x-ray her but transferred her to the main hospital as soon as they has established that it was broken.

[dilanium]

I think it depends on the severity of the break whether they will transfer you or not (as well as each facility). If you need to see an orthopedic surgeon right away then they would transfer you.

For instance, I broke both my pinky fingers (on separate occasions) and only went into the hospital once during the time to see if I would need surgery to reattach a ligament to the bone- and that was weeks after the injuries. Not saying that's even comparable to a broken leg- but the point is such things can be handled without a trip to the hospital.

[BkyMonster]

I got an ear infection on a weekend so turned up at one looking for antibiotics (got some but my eardrum ruptured anyhow as I was a dummy and tried to tough it out a bit too long). I tend to think of those things as the place to go if A) my GP isn't open and it can't wait until Monday B) I'm not in danger of dying.
While I was waiting various people did show up with broken bits (a child's arm and a man's foot), were X-rayed and plastered and sent on their ways. Not sure entirely how ACC works, but since both of the people with broken bits had broken them in accidents they had some ACC stuff to fill out or likewise whilst they were there. So they may have had a refund coming?

[peebles16]

Don't know about the specific one mentioned in the OP, but this is not the case in TGA - they have an x-ray machine and can do everything there. We initially went to the A&E to be advised by reception that we could go down the road and they woiuld be able to see her straight away.

We ended up at the private medical centre in CHC first time youngest son broke his arm. As soon as they established it was broken sent us to Public cos they couldn't deal with that type of fracture... Second time we just went straight to public to save the wait and the cash Many people with private health insurance use these clinics though as they can claim costs back

Karen