Hi Steve
I think yours is an excellent post.
The one thing I really learned from the "Wanted Downunder" series was that you get FAR more house for your money in Oz. There was one in Adelaide that I'd have bought on the spot, it looked so lovely.
Plus the public health service in Oz is a MILLION times better than the NHS in the UK. My Mum was 80 when she fell and broke her hip during a visit to my sister in Perth. Mum has osteoporosis (brittle bone disease) which no private insurer will cover her for or would cover her for 7 years ago when this happened.
Mum did have ambulance cover but even without it she still needed to be rushed to hozzy. She was taken to the public hospital in Fremantle and was in theatre within 2 hours of admission. Fractures are not life-threatening but with the elderly, shock is the killer after such an injury. The quicker the doctors deal with the fracture, the better the Senior's chances of survival. I have read of people being left on trolleys in corridors for anything up to 3 days in NHS hospitals in the UK before anything has been done about repairing the damage with hip-fractures.
I have no doubt at all that Fremantle Hozzy saved Mum's life. Whether the NHS would have done the same is highly debatable, I feel.
They kept Mum in hozzy for 2 weeks because they insisted on sending someone round to Elaine's house to ensure that the bathroom Mum uses is sufficiently-adapted for the disabled, and they gave Mum hydrotherapy after she went home to convalesce.
She has never been offered any sort of aftercare in the UK. That says it all so far as I am concerned because we got the stuff off the Australian GP, the Australian orthopaedic consultant and Fremantle Hozzy, and I gave the lot to Mum's GP in the UK, so it is on her UK medical notes. Offers of aftercare in the UK were never forthcoming, so I am HIGHLY relieved that Mum now has
PR in Oz.
Cheers
Gill
