Health Insurance Questions re general health cover and poor cover for outpatient mental healthcare?

Hollyoaks3

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I know that the Mater Private is probably the best, with Blackrock Clinic a close second but what about the Hermitage, the Beacon and the Galway clinic? Which is the best overall or does it depend on type of procedure?

Also, what are Bon Secours, St Vincent's, Beaumont like? I've heard that Vincent's has a good oncology department but would like more info on the rest.

Why is there such poor cover for outpatient mental healthcare? Is this due to stigma (not seen as equal to physical healthcare)? Or just wanting to prioritise hospitalisations as they're more expensive than treating someone in the community? I question whether hospital focused approach is a good idea for mental healthcare because once someone leaves the hospital, what service do they get?
 
What makes you say that MPH and BRC are #1 and #2?

Evaluating hospitals is notoriously difficult as you have many variables like the specialty, the individual consultants, physical building, location, catering, and so on. Information on patient outcomes, safety, hygiene, etc. can be difficult to find and tricky to compare.

What are the things that are most important to you?

As for outpatient mental health cover, I think you are right - a mixture of stigma, tradition, and focus on inpatient care.
 
Well you always hear people wanting to be covered by the Mater Private so I assumed they were the best. I've been told that they're good for cardiac care and neurosurgery. I've heard of issues re the Beacon but really don't know a lot about the different high tech hospitals so thought I'd ask.

A good consultant would be no 1 on my list of priorities- someone good at diagnosing, thorough treatment plan, aftercare plan if I need it, someone who I can raise queries with (if they're collaborative with patient, that's a huge plus but the main thing is diagnosis and treatment plan). Catering would be a low priority-it's really the standard of the medical care that I'm interested in.
 
I have worked in several of these hospitals and have been a patient in a few of them. The differences are generally small. You will not find one clinic that has collaborative doctors and another that has rude ones. They are all mixed.

Mater Private, Beacon, Vincent's Private are known for oncology. Mater Private, Beacon, Blackrock for cardiac. Vincent's, Beacon, Blackrock for general surgery. Beacon and Santry Sports Clinic for orthopaedics. Vincents and Beacon for radiotherapy. And so on. But really that is a lot of marketing and partly individual patient experience rather than objective measures of quality.

Private consultants often work in more than one hospital, so if you have a plan that covers all high tech hospitals then you will have almost unlimited options.

I would actually put catering and hospital appearance high up on my list - makes a difference if you are stuck there for a few days/weeks! Also nursing staff are so important as they are with you 24/7.
 
Oh which hospitals have the best catering and settings? I assumed that the catering would be good as it's private. Thanks for giving me more information on this!
 
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