7 Tips About Visiting Fiona Stanley Hospital

Many of us have the blessing of not having to visit hospitals much, however sometimes you just have to go, whether it be to visit family and friends or to be admitted yourself. Here are some tips for visiting Perth's newest and biggest hospital.

Dawn @ ICU in Fiona Stanley Hospital

For visitors - 

Free Parking - The only time you can get free parking is after 6pm on any day. Otherwise, there is ten minute parking at the Emergency area which is monitored by patrol staff. Streetside parking is $2 / hr monitored by the City of Melville and multi-storey parking is $3 / hr.

Visiting hours are to 8pm except Emergency which is at any time.

Food outlets - Subway, Jamaica Blue and Aroma have outlets there, as well as a couple of other stores. For coffee, Jamaica Blue is pretty decent and there is another takeaway coffee outlet on the other side of the hospital entrance.

Water - There are water dispensers opposite the food outlets so there's no need to pay $4 for a bottle of water. Waiting areas such as in the ICU section have filtered water on the taps.

View from Level 5 looking towards Murdoch Train Station

For patients - 

TV/Radio and Phones - Each ward has a TV and radio. TV is free for long stay patients but others will need to pay. Radio is free and each bed has a local phone number that you can call. Meals are ordered via the TV screen and in case you were wondering, do robots deliver food to patients? No, though food is automatically delivered to the level and then porters deliver the food.

Finally, is Fiona Stanley Hospital all that bad? It's a very clean, modern hospital with staff doing their best to look after our friends and family and they're doing pretty well. Next to Joondalup Health Campus, FSH is bearing the brunt of Perth's hospital needs.

Check before going into Emergency 

And if you are planning to go to an emergency department in Perth, check out this website first which tells you how long you will be waiting in all the public hospitals including how many Emergency patients are waiting for admission. Or call HealthDirect on 1800 022 222 if you are not sure whether you should go in, it may save you 3 hours wait.

Egiftcards - What are they and why use them?

So you may have heard of the term and wonder what they are and how they work? More importantly, why would someone want an egiftcard rather than a WISH gift card for example? I'll talk about Woolworths branded egiftcards because we buy these for our own use to save 5% which you can't do with Coles.

Egiftcards are giftcards that are emailed to you rather than sent via traditional post. When paying for your petrol or groceries etc, tell the shop assistant that you are paying via egift or egiftcard. They will then allow you to enter the 10 digit code and the 4 digit pin and the amount will be deducted from your invisible egiftcard.

Advantages 

• When you buy them via RAC website or the Entertainment book, you get 5% off 
• You receive them faster than you do if you were to order a traditional gift card
• You don't need to worry about losing your egiftcard
• You can go shopping without your wallet. Just remember or write down your 10 digit egift code and your 4 digit PIN. 
• You can check your Woolworths WISH and Everyday egiftcard balance here (for egiftcards currently, add 628000555 in front of your 10 digit code if you are going to use this site).

Disadvantages

• They are not really gift cards, because you are unlikely to give someone a sheet of paper and say "Happy Birthday". 
• Like with traditional gift cards, you need to keep track of how much is on your egiftcard yourself. The remaining balance is not printed on the receipt for Woolworths/Caltex stores so you need to enter it in your phone or something
• If you buy too many of these, you can lose track of how much you have on each gift card. It is good to keep track using your email, your phone or something. 
• As with all gift cards, you are limited 
• Sometimes mail services have problems opening up the pdf - "This file cannot be previewed because it has been corrupted" or "There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged and could not be repaired". If this happens, contact Woolworths here - giftcard@woolworths.com.au and they will fix the issue or send you a replacement.

Since this is relatively new technology, if a thief were to find in your wallet with a ten digit code and 4 digit pin, they might not know what to do with it. So now you know how these egiftcards work, pass this on to someone who doesn't.

Get $250 for signing up to a credit card

Australia, you have a debt problem. And banks are falling over themselves trying to get you into more debt. But if you are wise and pay off your cards before the due date, you can take advantage of the many offers out there. Commonwealth Bank is offering $250 if you sign up to their low rate credit card. By low rate, they mean 13.49% which is astronomical but like I said, you shouldn't be paying that if you set up your direct debits to pay off your debts before the due date. There is an annual fee of $59 which can be waived after the fact by asking for a change to a no fee card.So if you know how to manage your finances, here's to another $250 cold hard cash.

• How to get $100 cash on a fee free debit card with the best mobile app

Armadale is Perth's most popular Telstra FREE Wifi hotspot

If you have noticed recently, Telstra payphones have been looking a little different. Many of them now have a WIFI symbol on top of them which allows Telstra customers access to free unlimited wifi from now until 30 June 2016! Currently, Armadale is the only location in Perth that is in Telstra'a top ten wifi locations around Australia which is quite interesting. Here are the other locations around Australia. If you are a Telstra customer, get to a phone box nearby and try connecting to the free wifi service.


1. Telstra Discovery Store, 400 George St, Sydney
2.88 McDowall St, Roma, Queensland
3.84 High Street, Southport, Gold Coast
4.134 Jetty Rd, Glenelg, Adelaide
5.276 Railway Pde, Noble Park, Melbourne
6.7 Dawson St, Gladstone, Queensland
7.732 Military Rd, Mosman, Sydney
8.230 Jull St, Armadale, Perth
9.117 North Tce, Bankstown, Western Sydney
10.60 Wembley Rd, Logan Central, Brisbane

Perth's top 10 WIFI locations -

1.230 Jull St, Armadale
2.57 James St, Perth
3.78 Stirling St, Perth
4.108 Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton
5.208 Spencer Rd, Thornlie
6.300 Murray St, Perth
7.178 St Georges St, Perth
8.464 Hannan St, Kalgoorlie
9.68 Burt St, Boulder
10.13 Mends St, South Perth

AMEX Platinum Edge comes with 10,000 extra points

We mentioned in an earlier post that the AMEX Platinum edge provides a huge saving for those who travel domestically each year. For only $195, users can book a return flight almost anywhere in Australia even from Perth to Sydney. Forgot to mention that you actually get 10,000 points bonus if you sign up through here.

Other AMEX posts

• More about Virgin Velocity Platinum 
• More about Velocity Gold 
• Free flights with Velocity Platinum  
• Platinum Edge Free Travel Insurance but is it Good? 
• Virgin now flying AMEX Platinum cardholders
• Free return flight with Platinum Edge flights

How Much Does Speeding in WA Cost?

So, did you look this up because you just got flashed? As we enter another long weekend tonight, here is your reminder that double demerit points will be enforced all the way through to Tuesday. Many people like myself wonder at times what the going rate is for speeding. Here's what we got from the WA Police website (remembering this is only current as at the time of this post).  Also another important reminder is that sometimes when you are not caught speeding, you could end up killing or severely injuring someone. It's never worth the one minute you save.

This information is a guide only and should not be relied on for legal purposes. Full details of traffic offences and penalties are contained in the Road Traffic Code 2000.
Speeding by light vehicles
(Cars, motorcycles and other vehicles less than 22.5 tonnes Gross Combination Mass)

km/h over the speed limit	Fine	Demerits*
Not more than 9 km/h	$100	0
More than 9 km/h but not more than 19 km/h	$200	2
More than 19 km/h but not more than 29 km/h	$400	3
More than 29 km/h but not more than 40 km/h	$800	6
More than 40 km/h	$1,000	7

Police can impound the vehicles of drivers who exceed the speed limit by more than 45 km/h.
Speeding by heavy vehicles
(Vehicles with a Gross Combination Mass of 22.5 tonnes or more)

km/h over the speed limit	Fine	Demerits*
Not more than 9 km/h	$200	0
More than 9 km/h but not more than 19 km/h	$300	2
More than 19 km/h but not more than 29 km/h	$500	3
More than 29 km/h but not more than 40 km/h	$850	6
More than 40 km/h	$1,000	7

Police can impound the vehicles of drivers who exceed the speed limit by more than 45 km/h.

* Demerit points are doubled on long weekends and other prescribed holiday periods.

UPDATED: 14th September 2015