Lots of money for seemingly little effort

My followup appointment with the hand surgeon was for 2.30 pm. He had been on time when I visited last Monday, so I fed the parking meter for 40 minutes, thinking it should be plenty of time.

Wrong. It seemed all his followups were scheduled for the same time, so I had to feed the meter again. The City of Perth obviously does well from the patients of specialists - street parking costs $2.90 hour in West Perth. I got to see him just before the meter ran out a second time. Total parking cost: $4.90. Not happy about that.

Then I was handed the bill for the surgery. Over $1100. I will get some of that back from Medicare and HBF (our health insurance fund) but we will still be quite a lot out of pocket. Fortunately the cost of the day hospital was completely covered by HBF. The anesthetist (whose bill I am yet to receive) fee will also be covered by a combination of Medicare and HBF.

Last Tuesday the surgeon probably operated on a dozen people. He apparently does surgery on 2 or 3 days a week - say 25 operations. Most would be a bit more complex than mine, but would consequently incur larger bills.

I realise that he has had to have had many years of training and that it costs plenty to run a consulting room and associated staff. But he must earn in a week more than our allocated pension pays both of us in a year. Nice work.

And the assessment? My finger is healing really well, with 90% mobility. No pain except if I bump it, so it needs to be protected with a bandaid when I am working. The thumb injection has not as yet had any noticeable effect, so I have another follow up appointment in late January. The City of Perth will make more money from me then.