YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES: FRIDAY MAY 13TH, 2011, was an unlucky day for a reader called Sol O'Carroll. He was knocked off his bike on Dorset St in Dublin and was left with "a badly broken collarbone and some nasty bruises elsewhere".

He was taken to the Mater Hospital in an ambulance and after waiting several hours and was seen and X-rayed before being sent home with a sling and a prescription for painkillers.

He was told to look after the break and and let it heal by itself. The hospital said that every couple of weeks he would have to return for a new X-ray to check on the healing progress. “After several months, I still had major discomfort and had seen maybe five different doctors over the course of my visits – each one saying roughly the same thing, which was wait and see.”

He asked to see a senior person and eventually it was decided he needed surgery to fix the break. The surgery went well. “I have been going through the process of my insurance claim. Unfortunately, the lovely gentleman who was too busy on his phone while driving to see me coming has no insurance. So I am applying to the Motor Insurance Bureau Of Ireland,” he writes.

The last piece of the jigsaw his solicitors want is a medical report from the Mater.

“So I called up and asked if they could provide one for the claim, and was told to ask the solicitors to request it by letter,” which he did.

Two weeks ago, the solicitors received a letter saying the doctor would be glad to provide such a report, just as soon as he receives €595.95.

“Now I understand consultancy fees can be excessive, and that this is not a ridiculous amount of money for most people, but despite the fact that I am fully employed and have been for some time now – I do not have €600 lying around with which to pay him. Basically I am wondering is this a regular occurrence? Or does it vary with each consultant perhaps?”

Absurd credit card charge

NICK IN KOREA got in touch to complain about Government policy in connection with credit cards. He and his girlfriend recently moved to Asia to work and before they left, his girlfriend got a Visa credit card for essential use only. “She bought Skype credit for €10 to contact her family and immediately cleared the debt from the card when the purchase was registered. She was, it seems opportunistically charged €30 government stamp duty.”

He points out that they don’t live in Ireland “somewhat because of AIB’s influence on the nation” and says the Government, “which now essentially controls AIB, has in turn seemingly discovered how to arbitrarily suck money out of the Diaspora and foreign economies.”

Children's hospital in Vancouver stresses cash over travel insurance

CHRISTOPHER AND Vanessa Price from Co Clare had what sounds like a most distressing experience while on holiday in Canada recently. On Easter Sunday, their seven-year-old son Conor developed headaches and pains in his legs.

“During the previous few days, he had a temperature and vomited on a couple of occasions. Our first concern was of meningitis, so we rang our travel insurance company for direction. They told us to go to one of two hospitals in Vancouver, where we were staying. We were directed to the BC Children’s Hospital where, after a triage nurse had seen him, we were directed to the registry office or the accounts department,” writes Christopher.

“After an inordinate amount of time in the administrative assistant trying to understand our address, in which she had never heard of Ireland and her computer did not have Ireland in the drop down menu for countries, she had no difficulty informing us that the charge to see the doctor would be $895!”

Price was told that the hospital would not accept his travel insurance policy and hospital policy was to accept payment first before a doctor was called. “If I did not pay, it would be up to the doctor whether they would see our son. When I asked to see the policy in writing, we were refused.”

He points out that if you are a resident of Canada with no insurance, the charge would be $380, so they are charging tourists nearly 250 per cent extra – even if they have insurance. “We were fortunate that we had a credit card that could take the payment. The point I am making is that due to the fact that many Irish people are now emigrating to Canada and that family members are now making visits to them, many think that their travel insurance will cover them. It will not immediately and it is policy in these hospitals for them not to accept it.”

As it turns out, the child only had a virus, and after a couple of days’ rest he was fine, “but if he was not, the daily rate for a hospital stay was between $5,000 and $11,000”.