Some of you may know that I gave birth to baby James in Columbia Asia Nusajaya hospital. We decided to switch from Raffles Hospital SG to Columbia Asia when I was about 7 months pregnant, mainly due to the hospital's proximity and flexibility of going home post delivery (Myself and baby would be stuck in Singapore for weeks if we're to deliver in SG as we'd need to wait for James' passport to be completed).
Columbia Asia Nusajaya is quite a new hospital located near Bukit Indah (10 mins drive from East Ledang).
Columbia Asia Sdn Bhd is 30% owned by the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and 70% by a US-based fund, the International Columbia USA LLC (ICU), which comprise over 150 individual and institutional investors. The hospital provides quite an extensive range of health services as you can see here.
- Obstetrician and Gynecologist
The Obstetrician and Gynecologist in Columbia Asia that I see is Dr Teh Jin Teik. He's the most popular Obstetrician in the hospital and is always busy. For Saturday's appointment, we would usually arrive ta 7.45 am (or before) to queue for registration and return to hospital at around 10.30 - 11 am for our consultation. There's no appointment system in the hospital, you have to register and queue.
Dr Teh has been very wonderful, friendly & soft spoken and very patient. He did my C-section surgery successfully and even removed an inflamed appendix in the process. If I have any emergency questions, I could sms and he would reply :) He also answered our questions on our baby even though he's not a pediatrician.
- Pediatrician
The pediatrician in Columbia is Dr Razlina Johari. We've been to 1 consultation with her (1 week post birth) and I am far from being impressed, in fact I wouldn't recommend engaging her unless if you absolutely have no other choice. We found that she has poor bedside manner and was not forthcoming to provide details about the health concern she raised for James.
- Hospital facilities
Operating room was very new and follow standard health and hygiene regulation. I remember one of the assistant surgeon was extremely helpful and friendly. I was petrified going into the surgery room and she helped to calm my nerves. THANK YOU!
The delivery wards are also very new and clean. There was only 1 other lady who gave birth in the same period as I did so the wards were mostly empty and we had more than enough nurses to cater to the two of us. The nurses were very nice. I really liked the Chinese older nursery nurse who gave me a lot of tips about breastfeeding & postnatal care as well as an Indian younger nursery nurse who was always bubbly and cheerful.
I stayed in the hospital for 2 nights post my C-Section. The total delivery hospitalization and medication charges were ~ RM 11K (including appendix removal). Overall, I am happy with my delivery experience in Columbia Asia. The only regret/downside is that Ian was not allowed into the surgery room, I would have much preferred to have him by my side during the labour process.
P/S: We have a friend who cut himself and severed some nerves on his thumb. He was hospitalised and engaged Dr Yoga Raj to do micro surgery to fix the cuts. Surgery went well and our friend's since recovered. Our friend is happy with Dr Yoga Raj' professionalism and expertise.
View Columbia Asia Hospitals in a larger map
All the best for all pregnant ladies out there!
Erika
Hi Erika,
ReplyDeleteLove to read your blogs, it is always so informative.
I write in to share our Johor Pediatrician experience for our little James as well.
We have seen both Dr Unnikrishnan (KPJ Hospital), Dr Woon (KPJ Hospital) and Dr Razlina (Columbia Asia). Definitely would recommend Dr Woon. He is very patience and take time to explain the baby condition in details. You will feel much better after listening to his explanation (well, this take away a lot of my stress).
To see Dr Woon, you will need to call in at 830am to make the appt. The nurse will arrange a timeslot for you to visit (eg 2-3pm and usually Friday and Saturday tends to be a lot more patiences). Our 3 times visits so far, we have just been waiting for less than 10 minutes (except Friday, where we waited about 30 minutes).
Dr Krishnan - while he was examining James (2nd day after James was born and having his normal newborn check with the doctor), he was chit chatting with the another nurse and i am just right in front of him waiting for his comment on James'. I thought he could be more focus and more professional. (Anyway, this was just my 5 minutes experience with him).
Dr Razlina - She gave me a couple of doubtful looks but yet she didn't explain it. But, do have to agree that the queuing system could be better. We waited 2 hours.
Also, i would recommend Dr Lim Keng Joo (KPJ) for Obstetric & Gynaecology. She is an awesome doctor and probably the only chinese lady doctor in town.
Cheers...Mei.
Thanks so much for sharing Mei! I'll keep Dr Woon and Dr Lim in mind. Have a great week.
DeleteHey great blog u have there. Recently found my wife to be pregnant and should be going to Columbia to have the follow up from there :)
ReplyDeleteHi Erika, thought you're Indonesian from the name, and found out you are. Thanks for sharing this, just that i wished i read your blog before :-( had bad experience with the hospital. Hubby made an appointment a week before for a female malay doc which turned out to be bad experience for us. The week after on the day of appointment we came like 8.30 and done with the registration around 8.45 and got Q no 18. The nurse said doctor will be coming 9.30 but till 10 something still not there. So we kept waiting till 12's i finally asked the current Q no and nurse replied 'its 14' so we kept waiting till few patients in and out and asking again for current Q no and now nurse replied 'i dont know u can ask the reception' and hubby did asked and turned out its still 8 Q no to go then we decided to leave. The hospital tried to call around 3pm. Can you imagine that??! Fiuhhh So now i dont know cos i feel like black listed the hospital as from the experience they're not very pro and very primitive as there's no screen for Q no or anything like that. But reading your blog, perhaps we can give it another try with this doct Teh Jei. Anyway thanks,,,its very useful.
ReplyDeletewhen i called Columbia Nusajaya wanted to make appointment to see Dr Teh, then found out that he had resigned 2 months ago. anyone knows where he goes?
ReplyDeleteHi there...very informative..can i know what are the charges for antenatal checkups like?
ReplyDeleteI would like to know the antenatal checkup in columbia hopital also.
ReplyDeleteDr Teh has sessional clinic at the new hospital , Gleneagles Medini now. that day i brought my son to go see his regular paediatrician Dr Terry Wong , happened to see Dr Teh there too . He opens his clinic there on friday and saturday but i was told that he will come and deliver babies anytime
ReplyDeleteWah didn't know the paed at Columbia Asia is that bad. My husband told me to choose between both Columbia Asia and gleaneagles medini.. He thought that the price at Gleneagles is crazily expensive as it is doubled compared to Columbia Asia. But I'm glad that we chose gleaneagles.. Although the staffs are not alot yet but atleast the paed for my daughter, Dr Terry Wong is a good doctor and concern about both baby and mommy doing :)
ReplyDeletehi natalia!may i know the delivery package at gleneagles medini?n which doctor?
DeleteWah didn't know the paed at Columbia Asia is that bad. My husband told me to choose between both Columbia Asia and gleaneagles medini.. He thought that the price at Gleneagles is crazily expensive as it is doubled compared to Columbia Asia. But I'm glad that we chose gleaneagles.. Although the staffs are not alot yet but atleast the paed for my daughter, Dr Terry Wong is a good doctor and concern about both baby and mommy doing :)
ReplyDeleteAny feedback with regards to Dr. Rohaida from Gleneagles medini? Was seeing Dr. Balwinderjit for my 2nd pregnancy when she resigned and am.now directed to Dr. Rohaida. Would like any opinions or feedback with regards to her. Alternatively I might return to Dr. Rajesh whom delivered my firstborn in Columbia Asia.
ReplyDelete