No blanket for you!
By Stu on Jul 20, 2006 in renal, Dialysis, Annoyances
In the never ending quest to turn a profit from my misery, NephroCare Asia (Fresenius) have decided that it’s too expensive to provide a blanket to keep me warm at dialysis.
Now this wouldn’t be an issue if they didn’t insist on running my machine at 36 degrees C, but that’s a story for another day.
I’ve bitched a bit in the past about the cost of health insurance here in Australia, and whether it’s worth having in the context of undertaking private dialysis, and small things like this just validate my point.
There comes a point where, in the drive for profitability, the differentiation between private and publicly funded dialysis becomes so small that there’s no benefit in consumers shelling out the (not inconsiderable) funds for the private insurance.
This point is rapidly being reached in Australia. Care needs to be taken by the private dialysis providers that they understand the reason for their existence - providing a service of a higher level, with greater comforts than the public system. If the private providers do not realise this, they will find themselves with patients who don’t consider the private units worth the expense, and they will just move back into the publicly funded system.
Susan Williams | Sep 21, 2006 | Reply
I agree with you Stu. My first comment to you went off into cyberspace. So I will try again. I spent 7 weeks dialysing in Germany where they had a potassium test kit. the results were instant. In regard to no more blankets, what about bringing in your own pillowcases? Our lemonade has been stopped. the tinned fruit given the thumbs down and oh dear the Cookie man Biscuits have also gone. What next? I don’t know where you dialyse Stu, but here at Hartley the standand has really fallen since coming here mid ’90s.There used to be a fully operational kitchen till Fresenius took over. Now it’s all profit dirven. I would like to get one share for each of my teatments at hartley. I would be rather wealthy by now. Susan
Stu | Sep 26, 2006 | Reply
Hi Sue, you’d be surprised at how close I am to you!
As far as the standard dropping at hartley, I don’t know - many moons ago I dialysed there, and have had occasion to dialyse there a few times over the last couple of years.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that dialysis anywhere in the private system is purely a profit driven business now, which is a shame, but inevitable I guess.
Thanks for dropping by!