krmcc

Under the reciprocal they say that surgery isnt covered if its not classified as being medically necessary and can be completed on return to the UK. Even though it means he can no longer swim, play rugby, has to be extremely careful at work lifting heavy objects (basically rules out anything from his private life he was doing before) but then by the sounds of it wouldnt be covered under NHS to even have it done on a brief return. You've raised a very good point Petals, the specialist who hes seen and would do the surgery only works on shoulders and seems to really know his stuff, which is a huge difference to what you get in the UK. I guess you get what you pay for right? If only it wasn't $10,000... I hope you all have full cover health insurance!

Thanks for the replies. He's on a 461 visa, we've been here just gone a year now so he would be classed as a resident now. We were considering calling our doctor and seeing if its possible to forward on the scans and specialist notes direct to his to see if this will quicken the process but as you've mentioned this might effect our option for getting the NHS as we wouldn't be classed as a resident

My partner dislocated his shoulder doing Tough Mudder (...) and was referred to a specialist by our doctor who confirmed he needs surgery to attach the tissue back to the bone. We have just received the quote back, and for one night in hospital its going to cost us over $10,000 for the surgery! We've been told shoulders aren't covered by the medicare system in Australia. Does anyone know what the average wait time is back in the UK at the moment for getting something like this done through the NHS? It seems like our best option would be to fly back to have the procedure done. Any help/knowledge would be appreciated!