Aussie Childcare Network Forum

My 2 year old son needs grommets, last year alone he had at least 9 ear infections in 7 months, one of those sent him to hospital with febrile convulsions and a burst ear drum, Ive lost count as to how many ear infections hes had this year. 2 separate referrals have been sent to the Gold Coast Public hospital, and they still say the wait will be years. His biological father (I dont count him as a father as he has nothing to do with us anymore) has major hearing loss because of the same thing. Ive just come back from the doctor with my son and ANOTHER (making it the 3rd) referral for grommets. Does anyone know of anyway I could get him in sooner, or anything that would help??? thanks

Hi Steffelz,

I am soo sorry to hear this stefflez...I cant even imagine the worry you must be having...

I remember that one of my cousin had Grommets put into his ears about 4 years ago. He was 2 and a half at that time. So after i read your post, I rang my aunt to find out more..she said that at the time (maybe 2007-2008), it was more than 10 months wait in the public system. It is a long wait when you are put on the public waiting list. So instead she decided to go private. So in a private, the only waiting she had was getting the appointment with the specialist. She was able to get a specialist appointment for the next week or so and then had the Grommets operation done within 2 weeks after the specialist appoinment. I think it costed her about $1200/- to $1500/-.

Having said that, this happened a few years ago and I dont know how much it costs now to get it done via private and I dont know how it is in QLD. Did you talk to any private hospitals and find out what they can do? Do you have private health insurance that may cover this?

"2 separate referrals have been sent to the Gold Coast Public hospital, and they still say the wait will be years."

Have they given you a time frame for how long it could be upto? Is it over 1 year wait or more?

If you can I'd go to private if you can if not find a different public one that can accomodate you quicker. Not fair to have your poor child suffer more than he needs to, wish the docs understood that

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