NEED SURGERY? BEWARE THE CATCH 22 SITUATION

QI am due to have a hip replacement operation that’s covered under my Laya Connect Choice plan. When I tried to book a convalescent home to recover from the operation, I found these are booked out and I am only covered up to €50 a night anyway, while the care costs many times this. Is there better cover available? Would I have been better off going public?

AInsurers used to fully cover convalescence for up to two weeks, but those days are long gone. Now most policies provide only token cover towards convalescence.

The Laya plan’s cover is actually pretty standard. In fact, even more expensive plans provide only a similar level of token cover towards convalescence.

You can check out your health cover options on www.hia.ie and www. totalhealthcover.ie.

If you went public you would be covered for convalescence but this would involve a long wait for an operation and you may not get a choice as to which convalescent facility you go into.

But unfortunately, by going private for your operation, and avoiding the wait, you can’t usually get free convalescence in a public hospital afterwards. Catch 22.

Even if you cough up for a private convalescent home, surprisingly, given the shortfall in cover that exists, these are very difficult to get into as they are ‘booked’ long in advance.

Many people in your position end up staying in hospital for as long as possible and then recovering at home with as much help from family as they can muster.

As we highlight in My View this week, there is a shortfall when it comes to nursing home care in this country that needs to be addressed.

And convalescence for elderly people recovering from serious operations can be added into that equation.

QI received a letter from Virgin Media on November 4 stating that my TV and broadband would be discontinued from December 4 as the service would no longer be available in my area (in Dublin 3) due to technical reasons.

It promised that my account would be credited with a month’s free service as compensation.

But the Virgin fee continued to be deducted from my account for November, December and, now, January.

I rang Virgin and was told that they did not send the letter of November 4. The operative implied I am liable for not only the monies already deducted but also for a further month of service after the account is cancelled.

AI contacted Virgin on your behalf. The letter you received in November was correct – the service is being discontinued. However, the operative you spoke to was not aware of the situation. The company apologised and said it has put this right by closing your account and will refund any monies due or promised to you.

QI always seem to invest in unit funds that have performed well for years just as they take a turn for the worse. How can I avoid this?

AIf you pick a fund that has been recently a top performer, it may be due a change in fortune! Rather than choosing funds based on performance alone, you should be picking the funds you believe in for the long-term. Experts say that you look to stay in a fund once you have chosen it for at least five years. That gives you time to ride out any ups and downs in performance. You should look to have a mixture of different regions, sectors and assets among your investments so they don’t all rise and fall at the same time. The manager’s style, too, will come in and out of favour. Some like to pick out-of-favour firms and wait for the business to turn around; others like stocks which pay a steady dividend for a reliable income stream.