What's healthcare like in Australia?

[Ken]

Can anyone tell me what the standard of healthcare is in Australia? And does the healthcare system work properly or is it based on some 1950s design as in the UK?

 

One of the reasons we're leaving the UK is to get away from the NHS. At the moment if we have any health worries we know we can get a Ryanair flight to Latvia and see the appropriate consultant (here in the UK you have to make an appointment to see a GP who won't know anything and with the latest changes to NHS budgeting will have even less inclination to refer you to a proper doctor). So how does it work in Australia if say my child is sick and needs to see a Paediatrician?

[Quoll]

Blimey, you want to escape from the NHS. Many Aussies would give their eye teeth for it!

 

If your child is sick and needs to see a paediatrician you would either go to the hospital if s/he is very sick (in the same way you would go to Casualty) or if it is a chronic thing you would go to your GP and hope for a referral to a paediatrician. Unless you do what many Poms seem to take as their birthright and go to a bulk billing practice then you will pay the GP about $60 for the privilege of which $30 will be returned to you through Medicare. You will then wait anything between 3 days and 3 months (or more, all depends on where you are and how acute the problem) for a paediatric appointment at which time you will pay the doctor about $120 and get about $50 back through medicare.

 

Your child needs elective surgery then you could be waiting about 18 months (some places are worse than others and Canberra is very bad) and the surgery wont be done by the paediatric surgeon you have talked to but by one of his minions most likely. Unless, of course, you happen to have private health insurance in which case you are probably paying $250 a month and still end up about $2000 out of pocket after all expenses but you can usually get the surgery fitted in within a couple of weeks.

 

If you have something acute and life threatening you will be fine, hospital cover for those things is free and reasonably competent (just avoid neurology in Queensland:biglaugh:) but if what ails you is less than life threatening then $ and/or wait.

 

Latvia is looking pretty good right now :biglaugh:

[Petals]

The health service here is excellent. I have a lot to do with it and I have to say I was dreading getting ill when over in the UK last year. If I want to see a specialist here I get to see one, yes I have to pay a bit but think that is a good thing. Not being completely free is a good thing it makes people use only when needed not just to fill their day.

[kernow43]

Blimey, you want to escape from the NHS. Many Aussies would give their eye teeth for it!

 

If your child is sick and needs to see a paediatrician you would either go to the hospital if s/he is very sick (in the same way you would go to Casualty) or if it is a chronic thing you would go to your GP and hope for a referral to a paediatrician. Unless you do what many Poms seem to take as their birthright and go to a bulk billing practice then you will pay the GP about $60 for the privilege of which $30 will be returned to you through Medicare. You will then wait anything between 3 days and 3 months (or more, all depends on where you are and how acute the problem) for a paediatric appointment at which time you will pay the doctor about $120 and get about $50 back through medicare. Quote

 

I think your off the mark there. I go to a bulk billing doctor, have had the same one for 3 years, I don't pay one cent. Bulk billing is what it means, the doctor is paid by Medicare the going rate, and no more.

I have found the health system here fantastic. I do find it difficult to comprehend why some folk have problems with it.

[Guest guest30038]

Is there another Australia somewhere? I'm not living in the same one as Quoll.

 

I've had 3 elective surgeries, (Prostectomy, hernia, throat polyp) all completed within 6 months from diagnosis. Major surgery.......I presented to my Gp with nothing more than pins and needles in my hands and was given an angiogram within 3 days and a quadruple by-pass a week later.

 

Emergency treatment for my kids has always been first class (broken limbs) with little wait time.

 

My wife is a nurse and states that there is no comparison to the NHS when it comes to hospital treatment as she finds it far superior, based on her experience/in her workplace(s) past and present.

 

Some poms seem to dismiss the health service here simply because they either struggle to find a bulk billing GP, or because they have to pay for an appointment...........they seem to look no further than their purse/wallet.

 

Like any insurance, you need to read the fine print if you intend to go private and IME, most of the horror stories that I've heard of, come from the private sector. The public sector here in brizzy has it's ups and downs depending on your GP or treating hospital, but overall, even though it's 15 yrs on, it is far superior to the NHS that I knew back in the days when the UK hospitals were going/had gone, Trust and even in my recent experience.

 

On my last visit to the UK, (2 yrs ago) I visited a hospital in Derby due to excruciating pains in my foot/swelling, and an inability to walk on that foot. I waited 5 hrs to be given some gout tablets, (subsequently proven to be severe degeneration/athritis) without even an x-ray. A week later, I sliced the other foot on some rusty corrugated iron (wearing thongs) :rolleyes:. At a hospital in glasgow, I waited 3 hrs to be seen, another 2 to be stitched, and wasn't even asked if I my tetanus was up to date.

 

I know which health service I prefer :yes:

 

I sometimes think that even if the health service was absolutely perfect in either country, there would always be a large amount of the population, be they poms or Aussies, who would moan/whinge. :rolleyes: Health requirements are a "mobile" thing..........an "educated guess" is the only option for planners ie How would one know how many emergency cases are likely to arise on any given day? If you need treatment on a day when an unusual "spike" occurs, then you're going to experience a longer wait. You can't staff simply for "likely occurences" hence there will always be the disgruntled.

 

Knocking any health service seems to be the pastime of many, no matter what country you're in.

 

kev

[Guest guest30038]

I have found the health system here fantastic. I do find it difficult to comprehend why some folk have problems with it.

 

Probably because they have a problem with other aspects of Australia..................I think they call it, "accumulative effect" :rolleyes:

 

kev

[Guest Guest31881]

Our Doctor Bulk Bills, not because it is my birthright but because that is the way they work. We only have one GP practice in town. My wife has been referred to hospital for a couple of problems and always been see by the hospital in a relatively short space of time, I have been referred to a cardiologist for a long standing problem and I have had to wait 3 weeks. I have found the treatment here to be first class and very efficient. Our only problem is that we live 4 hours away from Brisbane and one of my wife's appointments is at the Brisbane Women's Hospital so we have a night in Brisbane every 6 months. I cannot fault the service we have had here.

 

PS I worked in the NHS for 33 years on the Emergency side, so I do know what I am talking about.

[Guest siamsusie]

Blimey, you want to escape from the NHS. Many Aussies would give their eye teeth for it!

 

If your child is sick and needs to see a paediatrician you would either go to the hospital if s/he is very sick (in the same way you would go to Casualty) or if it is a chronic thing you would go to your GP and hope for a referral to a paediatrician. Unless you do what many Poms seem to take as their birthright and go to a bulk billing practice then you will pay the GP about $60 for the privilege of which $30 will be returned to you through Medicare. You will then wait anything between 3 days and 3 months (or more, all depends on where you are and how acute the problem) for a paediatric appointment at which time you will pay the doctor about $120 and get about $50 back through medicare. Quote

 

I think your off the mark there. I go to a bulk billing doctor, have had the same one for 3 years, I don't pay one cent. Bulk billing is what it means, the doctor is paid by Medicare the going rate, and no more.

I have found the health system here fantastic. I do find it difficult to comprehend why some folk have problems with it.

 

 

I couldnt agree more! I have found it nothing less than 5*!

 

I have received the most incredible care just recently, I thank the gods I am here in Australia rather than ........

 

 

Susie

[Guest Magnetic6]

From my experience I would say medicare is on a par with the NHS, no better or worse from what you would expect from a first world country.

I've worked in health care in both countries and Petals i certainly wouldn't dread becoming ill in the UK!

[gpo1971]

I'd always advise private medical insurance as Medicare levies only take you so far. However, in terms of the standard and speed of being attended to when you need it, Aus is way better.

The NHS was on the list of reasons why we couldn't get out of the UK quick enough. The first time we needed it after 20 years of us both being taxed for it, we were denied treatment. Probably because we weren't foreign, lesbian or smackheads, they seem to do ok out of it.

I am happy to pay for things when I get the service the payment warrants. In my opinion it does over here.

By the way, I'm not aiming this at UK NHS staff, who are great, rather the system.

[Guest siamsusie]

I'd always advise private medical insurance as Medicare levies only take you so far. However, in terms of the standard and speed of being attended to when you need it, Aus is way better.

The NHS was on the list of reasons why we couldn't get out of the UK quick enough. The first time we needed it after 20 years of us both being taxed for it, we were denied treatment. Probably because we weren't foreign, lesbian or smackheads, they seem to do ok out of it.

I am happy to pay for things when I get the service the payment warrants. In my opinion it does over here.

By the way, I'm not aiming this at UK NHS staff, who are great, rather the system.

 

:mad:Oh god! I despair!

[gpo1971]

Despair all you like, it's my first hand experience of it.

[Guest siamsusie]

Despair all you like, it's my first hand experience of it.

 

For all the arguments of foreigners being treated within the NHS, as a professional I would be loath to turn away anyone who had a genuine requirement. I take on board the very fact that the NHS is over subscribed ....in an emergency situation you too would be treated in an A & E department if on holiday. There is a reciprocal arrangement.

 

So Lesbians/Gays are not worthy of treatment? Have they not paid their taxes as much as Hetrosexuals? Why single out a group of people by their sexuality?

 

Homophobia Is Not Incurable!

 

 

 

Smackheads are still patients and there by the grace of the gods ......

[gpo1971]

The PCT where we lived was guilty of providing treatment to minority groups that it was denying others. The story made the National press & was the subject of a TV show. Of course, nothing came of it.

It wasn't emergency treatment so nothing like reciprocal care.

It took us 18+ months of treatment to find out that we didn't qualify. An anonymous worker at the PCT, outraged by the decision, sent us through details demonstrating that minority groups were not treated the same and were exempt from the qualification criteria that my Mrs had failed on. Information provided to others like us was the basis for the TV show.

I wrote to my MP but only got a standard 'Thanks for writing letter'.

Like you say, 'Why single people out?'

[Guest guest30038]

 

Homophobia Is Not Incurable!

 

 

 

Is the NHS that good? :wink: :biglaugh:

 

kev

[Guest siamsusie]

Heaven the gay nightclub has a "Gay Aversion Therapy Clinic" attached to it! all run by the NHS!:tongue::tongue:

[Quoll]

Is there another Australia somewhere? I'm not living in the same one as Quoll.

 

I've had 3 elective surgeries, (Prostectomy, hernia, throat polyp) all completed within 6 months from diagnosis. Major surgery.......I presented to my Gp with nothing more than pins and needles in my hands and was given an angiogram within 3 days and a quadruple by-pass a week later.

 

kev

 

Definitely another part of Australia! Canberra is acknowledged to be very bad with elective surgery - the latest, my carpal tunnel release, was quoted at 12 -18 months (early Feb this year) and a few years ago I needed gall bladder surgery and again quoted 18 months although I later met someone who had been on the list for 2 years with the same requirement. Both times I had surgery within 3 weeks as a private patient with the surgeon I had chosen as being the best in the field locally. The medical care though has been good - but not that much better or worse than UK I would think in terms of outcome.

 

I agree with Petals too, I think we should pay something. The system was set up as a co-pay system with bulk billing as a fall back for folk who couldnt manage the co payment. I know very few Australians who go out of their way to find a bulk billing doctor, most just suck it up and pay - I guess I am somewhat taken aback at the necessity new migrants seem place on the need to find a bulk billing doc. For me, continuity of care is far more important.

[gilliantay]

Can anyone tell me what the standard of healthcare is in Australia? And does the healthcare system work properly or is it based on some 1950s design as in the UK?

 

One of the reasons we're leaving the UK is to get away from the NHS. At the moment if we have any health worries we know we can get a Ryanair flight to Latvia and see the appropriate consultant (here in the UK you have to make an appointment to see a GP who won't know anything and with the latest changes to NHS budgeting will have even less inclination to refer you to a proper doctor). So how does it work in Australia if say my child is sick and needs to see a Paediatrician?

 

 

Having been privileged to have worked within both systems, I have to say that I find little or no difference between the two............apart from the fact that I still maintain that the NHS remains more professional........no doubt that has all changed since I last worked within the NHS.

 

The one and only thing that I remained surprised about was 'private'..................

 

We used to have patients tranferred regularly from their private hospital to our High Dependency Unit within the public system because their health had 'deteriorated'...................these patients did nothing but complain about everything..........not one note of thanks for saving their lives !

 

The moral of the story is.........................if you take seriously unwell, you are going to end up in Public.

[Petals]

From my experience I would say medicare is on a par with the NHS, no better or worse from what you would expect from a first world country.

I've worked in health care in both countries and Petals i certainly wouldn't dread becoming ill in the UK!

 

I guess it was after hearing of the experience of my brother in law before he died. My sister in law worked for the NHS in charge of a trust she told docs where they had to work etc. and if she could not get good care for him no-one could. He had a massive infection and should have been hospitalised way before he was. He was very ill I grant you but this picking and choosing of who gets treatment is not on.

 

I know that I can pick my doc here, even if I am a public patient I can pick my own GP and pick my own specialist. GP discusses options with us and gets us seen as quick as he/she thinks is necessary for the condition.

[boganbear]

How do you find these bulk billing doctors? I can't find one locally so have to pay $60 upfront then get about half of it back a couple of days later. I have a nasty suspicion that none of the doctors in my area do bulk billing.

 

So far prescriptions have been about the same as in the UK, blood tests etc are free adn the service has been about the same though I did get a lovely Low GI recipe book free.

[kernow43]

Definitely another part of Australia! Canberra is acknowledged to be very bad with elective surgery - the latest, my carpal tunnel release, was quoted at 12 -18 months (early Feb this year) and a few years ago I needed gall bladder surgery and again quoted 18 months although I later met someone who had been on the list for 2 years with the same requirement. Both times I had surgery within 3 weeks as a private patient with the surgeon I had chosen as being the best in the field locally. The medical care though has been good - but not that much better or worse than UK I would think in terms of outcome.

 

I agree with Petals too, I think we should pay something. The system was set up as a co-pay system with bulk billing as a fall back for folk who couldnt manage the co payment. I know very few Australians who go out of their way to find a bulk billing doctor, most just suck it up and pay - I guess I am somewhat taken aback at the necessity new migrants seem place on the need to find a bulk billing doc. For me, continuity of care is far more important.

Actually Quoll it was meant to be all Bulk bill, but then doctors decided they wanted more money so the gap widened.

I am going for an appointment for carpel tunnel release on Wednesday next week. It is at a private clinic at the hospital paid for by the public system, I don't have private insurance, never have and never needed it. My wife recently went to the same hospital and same system for a knee op [cartilidge clean up} from seeing her doctor to the private specialist, to the operation was all done within 7 weeks, never cost a cent.

[Guest siamsusie]

My doctors all bulk bill, I even see Consultants in their private rooms and this is all bulk billed to Medicare.

 

Satisfied customer here!

[Guest guest30038]

My doctors all bulk bill, I even see Consultants in their private rooms and this is all bulk billed to Medicare.

 

Satisfied customer here!

 

Jobs for the boys more like! :tongue: :wink:

 

kev

[Quoll]

Actually Quoll it was meant to be all Bulk bill, but then doctors decided they wanted more money so the gap widened.

I am going for an appointment for carpel tunnel release on Wednesday next week. It is at a private clinic at the hospital paid for by the public system, I don't have private insurance, never have and never needed it. My wife recently went to the same hospital and same system for a knee op [cartilidge clean up} from seeing her doctor to the private specialist, to the operation was all done within 7 weeks, never cost a cent.

 

Gee you are lucky! I went to the best hand man in town and he gave me the time frame - and was at pains to point out that he wouldnt be doing it. In the end I am about $1500 out of pocket once all rebates are done but it got done within 3 weeks, I'm not sure that I could have put up with it for another 18 months, the difference is amazing. Canberra really is a disgrace and they know it. I guess there is also the expectation here with the higher salaries that more people will have private cover so the surgeons dont need to do as much public work if they dont want to.

 

Good luck with your op - it seemed a relatively straightforward process for me but I still have a very tender palm - would you believe the most difficult activity is cutting with a knife?!

[kernow43]

Gee you are lucky! I went to the best hand man in town and he gave me the time frame - and was at pains to point out that he wouldnt be doing it. In the end I am about $1500 out of pocket once all rebates are done but it got done within 3 weeks, I'm not sure that I could have put up with it for another 18 months, the difference is amazing. Canberra really is a disgrace and they know it. I guess there is also the expectation here with the higher salaries that more people will have private cover so the surgeons dont need to do as much public work if they dont want to.

 

Good luck with your op - it seemed a relatively straightforward process for me but I still have a very tender palm - would you believe the most difficult activity is cutting with a knife?!

I have had it for about 4 months {middle finger numb, been a painter most of my life] I could put up with it but find it awkward when putting my hand in for my wallet, the finger ends up on the outside of the pocket. I believe you may be right regarding Canberra with higher salaries etc.