Hi,
We have been quoted £50 each to have our medical records done to take to Australia with us from our Doctors.
But do we really need to take these as it will be £300 pounds as we are a family of 6.
Has anyone gone over without there records or do we have to take them to get registered at a Doctors in Australia.
Thanks Sean
You don't need to take your records - the only time I would suggest this is if you've had some serious illness or treatments and then you could ask for copies of consultant letters instead. You're not asked for your medical records and I'm sure you'll be able to give you're own medical history. Do bring the kids red books as you will need to prove immunisations for registering at schools. You can wait until you get here to register with a dr. it's slightly different here and you can go to any GP
Ali
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I agree with Ali ,you dont need them ,we have never been asked ,the only letters or records i brought where to do with my medical condition and my specialist wrote them free of charge.
save your dosh for a slab of beer when you arrive,lol
Cal x
Hi Sean,
We went to our GP before we left the UK & asked him about taking our medical records. He said he could give us our record (for a price) but suggested he just printed off a copy of our basic record from the computer instead which he would do for free. Its just basic with dates of treatments, vaccines, ops etc but I got it as a reminder in case I forgot anything (the memory is fading lol).
As far as I can gather from reading other threads on here you dont actually need medical records & as the whole migration process can be expensive then any savings you can make will help.
Hope you find this info helpful.
Good Luck
Paula
You don't need to take your records - the only time I would suggest this is if you've had some serious illness or treatments and then you could ask for copies of consultant letters instead. You're not asked for your medical records and I'm sure you'll be able to give you're own medical history. Do bring the kids red books as you will need to prove immunisations for registering at schools. You can wait until you get here to register with a dr. it's slightly different here and you can go to any GP
Ali
Hi ali
Thanks for that. How does it work with going to any doctors, is your information put into a main computer which they all look on? Also how does Medicare work? is it just the same as our NHS or do you really need to be looking at getting additional cover which I would think could be very costly do you have any idea how costly?
Hi ali
Thanks for that. How does it work with going to any doctors, is your information put into a main computer which they all look on? Also how does Medicare work? is it just the same as our NHS or do you really need to be looking at getting additional cover which I would think could be very costly do you have any idea how costly?
Cheers The oldgit
Your medical records will be practice specific - there is no national computer of medical records. Medicare covers part of the cost of going to see a doctor - there are some doctors who "bulk bill" which means that they bill Medicare and you dont pay anything but there are more doctors who dont bulk bill. In that case, you pay the $50 or $60 up front then take your receipt along to the Medicare office and they will give you about $30 back - generally costs you about $20 to see a GP. The disadvantage of the bulk bill doctors is that they generally work in medical centres and you can never be sure of getting "your" doctor and so your history will just be confined to notes and not to the doctor actually knowing you. Bulk billing was really designed to cover low income patients who could not afford to pay.
Contributions to medicare are taken out with your tax - 1.5% of your taxable income plus a further 1% if you dont have private medical insurance.
Whether you get private medical is up to you - ours costs $225 a month but the premiums vary according to your age when you joined the scheme. Joining after 30 incurs increasing premiums. Benefits are really only seen for hospital admissions, private insurance doesnt cover GP visits although it will cover things like dental and optical benefits.
You've answered much better than I could Quoll, I've only been to the Dr's twice and still trying to suss out the systme. Our Dr. Charges $56 for a 15 min appointment. Blood tests are bulk billed. We have registed with one practice, but could go to another one if I wanted to. They do have out of hours GP's but I know some people tend to rock up at A&E (ED here), 'cos that's free rather than pay an out of hours GP
Ali
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If you take out private medical cover in your first 12 mths here ,you will not be charged any levys for age,i.e,,you will be charged the same as 29 yr old regardless of age,hope this helps a bit
Cal x
We took out private medical insurance as we both wear glasses and wanted to cover dental fees as well. We also wanted to make sure that there would be no hidden costs if we had to go into hospital. Our ambulance cover is also on the policy. Remember if you don't have ambulance cover you will foot the bill and this could be around the $3000 mark (or so we've been told).
Also, if you take out private insurance you can claim some money back in your tax return too - although some companies fix it so that you get the price without gst and get it at discount rates straight away.
Felicity
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