German Hospitals

After a recent 12 day stay in hospital I will be cancelling my KK and changing to Private Medical Insurance. Terrible service, inedible food, no information given unless you ask for it 10 times .

Anybody had a better or worse experience here?

I've been in hospital 3 times in 3 different hospitals in Bonn. What they all had in common was good doctors, awful food and a team of nurses ranging from extremely good to 'oh no its her shift again'. I'm not sure how much difference private insurance makes. You would probably have a room to yourself and a choice of which doctor does your op. and also a wider menu of yukky food to choose from.
What I missed in German hospitals most was a proper cup of tea. They also tend to keep you in much longer and I like to go home as soon as I can walk. On the other hand the risk of getting an infection is probably much lower than in a NHS hospital.
Would you consider going private if you were living in England.

I'm privately insured and the food is still bad! I also made the mistake of insuring for a two-bed room...not realising the total lack of privacy in German hospitals. No curtains around the beds, so lord help you if you need a bed bath, bedpan or a strip search..errr...examination! and lord help you if your room-mate is either comatose, half-dead-and-moaning-all-night or a "keep-all-the-windows-closed-at-all-times" freak! but at least there are no waiting lists here...

I spent a week in hospital last year and although I agree about the lack of privacey, it is something you just have to get over!! The food was very good, the room clean, the nurses and Dr. were very good too and even the mattress was comfortable! The worst part was having to watch German TV!

The lack of privacy was not nice. I was in a 4 person room. It was also far too warm to sleep properly, but the people in the beds next to the windows complained if they were openned.

I actually had to refuse treatment from one nurse as he was toatllay incompetent.

I got over the TV problem by getting a friend to bring in my laptop and a load of DVD's.

I know the NHS is probably far worse, but with the amount I pay for my KK I could have very good private health insurnce in England. The KK system here really is a rip off, and you still have to pay for treatment.

For hospital stays I believe there is no comparison between UK and German private insurance. In the UK it's almost like a 5 star hotel, whereas here you get the same service as a KK patient but just in a private room (assuming that's stated in your insurance policy).

A German mate of mine who speaks English without a German accent was in a hospital in Paderborn, it was the same hospital as the British Military use and when he saw that the Brits had a different menu than the Germans he passed himself off as a Brit and had all the benefits of a fat boys breakfast… everyday.

If I end up having to go to hospital … I’ll make sure I go to the same one as the squaddies go, I detest German bread and would starve if I had to eat the bog standard German hospital food.

Thank you mack a now what good is

It’s great trying to decipher just what you mean A3-Steve , and Yes I was talking about you

I ve just spent a week in a German hospital. The doctors were very good, they did not seem to rush all the time, all my questions were answered with a full explanation.
I was very lucky to be in the same room as a really nice girl who had a c-section the same day as me so we went through the recovery stages together. There was no privacy whatsoever, no curtains round the beds, we could see each other being examined. I had a nurse who asked me some very private questions one day in front of the other girl's visitors!! She was a cow though and all the other nurses, especially the Schulerinen, were lovely. what I found the weirdest thing was that I could not take my baby in the little foyer downstairs because it was full of smokers. There was even a vending machine for cigaretts!
The food was not so good apart from on Easter Sunday.
All in all, I thought that it was at least as good as in England but I was glad to come home!
Slackmack, if you are reading, my baby is a boy called Joe.

Nice to hear from you Mirelle. Glad all went well and that you survived your stay in hospital.
That's pretty disgusting though about the smokers and cigarettes.

Mireille, Did you get to drink the 'Stilltee' and did they weigh your baby before and after feeds to see how much milk he was getting?

I still drink the Stilltee and it's working wonders for me, Joe is now well over his birth weight! No, they did not weigh him after feeds, he only got weighed for the U1 and U2 and my midwife weighed him again yesterday.
Thanks for all the congratulation messages by the way, nice way to start the day.