Several days after discharge from NYGH (North York General Hospital) you may receive an invoice with extra charges. Nobody in the hospital advise about them.
- Telephone services. There is a phone in the room, and the nurse kindly let us know that we could simply use it. She did not even mention that it would be any charge for this. Invoice shows extremely high $2.25 per minute rate for local calls inside Toronto!
- Birth Journal hidden charge. It has been provided long time before admittance to the hospital. There is no price on it, and nobody advised that we will be charged later. Invoice shows $15 price + $1.95 taxes (which is 13%). However, birth journal is obviously a book. According to the point-of-sale rebates law which is the part of HST transition in Ontario and BC as of July 1, 2010, books are exempt from PST portion of HST tax, and only 5% taxes should be applied.
- Charge to pay the invoice online at NYGH website: $2
Service itself at North York General Hospital is pretty good. Just be aware of those hidden charges for telephone calls and any books you are provided with.
Here is an invoice received from NYGH:
I have heard a lot of bad things about this hospital lately, particularly about the nursing staff and their neglective behaviour toward the patience’s, if you ask me these nurses need to develops some patience of their own. They seem to complain a lot about their job, did they not realize what they were signing up for when they took the job?
@BARB: Please read again: “There is a phone in the room, and the nurse kindly let us know that we could simply use it. She did not even mention that it would be any charge for this”
Plus other hidden charges like for birth journal and convenience fee. Also charging extra 8% tax for the book… Not enough money from taxpayers, eh?..
Thanks,
Trueler
on another note it should be clearly posted or stated somewhere or by someone that there is a charge for phone usage and how much it is. the televisions are set up that way at nygh so i find it hard to believe that the phones aren’t.
kelly did read the article and viewed the image attached. and it’s clearly showing $2.25 per day of phone use. so please answer the question why should ohip cover the cost of your phone use? you have a cell phone and there are pay phones in every hospital if you don’t want to be charged. i don’t know of anywhere you can simply use a phone completely free of charge. ohip is to cover health care costs. not telephone usage. simple.
@kelly n: Have you really read this article? I think its amazing some people in Ontario show so much disrespect and start ranting without even knowing the subject ;)
Trueler
I think its amazing some people think everything in Ontario is free of charge. What? do you think OHIP will pay for your phone bill? or your crutches? or Ambulance charge. Grow up, not everything is free in life. In the USA people are charged for bandaids. Do you not pay your phone bill at home?? Why should the hospital or government pay for your phone calls.
Actually, the phone is 1 DAY for $2.25 not one minute.
Nevertheless it’s a hidden charge. Doctors just give it you as a requirement, they don’t ask you if you need it. Moreover they overcharge taxes with 13% HST on books…
Actually, on the back of the the book in tiny letters, it says; “To help cover the cost of this journal, you will be asked to pay $15 on discharge, when you pay for your telephone service.”
I had the same issue with the same hospital. and i think that is a reall rip off. i am already paying taxes to the hospital and that is already a rip off. I think we all have to get togethetr and file a complaint and call the media to bring up the issue to the government and the public to find out where the money of our taxes going. so the hospital does not have to rip off people to cover the costs.