Hi
I'm a public patient this time. I was a private patient in NSW with dd. I paid through the nose for everything - we estimated between $7 thousand and $10 thousand for weeks in private hospitals, zofran, anesthetist for c/s etc, and thats not counting my lost income. My OB was good but I decided that the expense wasn't worth it this time especially since I've moved to QLD. The nurses in the (newcastle) private hospital were bitches too
So I went to logan hospital for fluids this time around with a call from my gp AND a letter and still had to wait
5 HOURS before they hooked me up. Next time I went to GP I asked could I go somewhere else and he suggested the mater. Mater is about 30 mins from me...but they saw and IV'd me within 15 mins. I was admitted to MM for 10 days. they tried a lot of things to help me and they are reasonably familiar with hg. I was about 14 weeks by then i think. They offered me steriods which helped A LOT and currently I am med-free. They are great with follow up and diet related stuff too - lol even though i would puke every time the dietician came in

So except for going home meds, i never paid a cent for that. Of course its your choice but I have had both public and private and not noticed much of a difference - only in price - not care!!Plus MM has a brand new wing which i was in which was nice too

The only 2 things I will say on the minus side for MM are:
1) They are a Catholic Hospital and therefore will never offer you an abortion (i dont think) no matter how sick you get
2) I asked about a TL or hysterectomy when they do my c/s with ds this time but again because they a catholic, they won't do it = they aren't even allowed to prescribe the pill or anything.
Their level of care is good and I think they do have a private section, but I really can't see how the care would differ much!
Hope this helps
Cheers