DrDougster
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Posts posted by DrDougster
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Medicals done Sunday 8th Nov, through panel and pressed go on info requested provided today. Status moved to "further assessment".
Time to either check immiaccount every 15 minutes or get on with life. Gonna attempt the latter!
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It really is states rather than nominal counties so there are state driving licences and "reggos" (actually spelt rego) which is Aus for car registration (including plate and paperwork). The highest member of state government is grandly known as The Premier and they make many decisions completely independent of national decisions such as taxation and government salaries.
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3 hours ago, Skani said:
I read it clearly as Marisawright explaining to someone unfamiliar with the Australian system that doctors are not employed by Medicare but are independent operators - not at all implying that they have a self interested business agenda.
I don't think "You pay them per consultation. They are all in business for themselves, so they can charge you whatever they like." is an accurate explanation to someone unfamiliar with the system.
I'm not mad keen on going all Humpty Dumpty with a word "means just what I choose it to mean" rather than simply admitting when you might have got something a bit wrong - a lot of politicians could do with just saying "Yeah, sorry, got that a bit wrong" at the moment!
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19 minutes ago, Marisawright said:
My first line was "one thing that may surprise you is that most doctors don't work for Medicare" and the "all" in the second sentence was referring back to those doctors. Badly worded, I agree.
I don't see how it's offensive. The Australian system is set up so that if you want to be in general practice, you must run your own business. You seem to be implying that anyone who's in business for themselves is automatically fleecing their customers.
I’m a doctor primarily to help people, not to be in business for myself. Saying I’m in business for myself, which you did by saying all doctors are is completely wrong.
anyway, we’re gonna go see Gruffalo’s Child at the theatre now which will be far more useful than me taking offence on a forum
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12 minutes ago, Marisawright said:
I said "most" doctors are in business for themselves, NOT all. I think all GP's are, though, which are the doctors people will see most often.
And the whole point of my second paragraph was to make people aware that public specialists do exist and are good - which a lot of people aren't aware of. It angers me when I see pensioners fretting about affording their specialist treatment, when a more thoughtful GP could easily have referred them to the public system in the first place.
I agree that waiting lists are not necessarily long. In the example I gave, my friend's father waited less than 2 months for his op. However, when I've posted here to say that waiting lists aren't bad, I've been howled down. So now, I settle for saying "waiting lists are no worse than the NHS" rather than claiming they're better.
Waiting lists at TPCH in Brisbane are streets ahead of NHS and agreed that health insurance is a luxury.
I would contest that you did say doctors are "all in business for themselves". This is a verbatim quote and I strongly disagree with this notion / find it borderline offensive as it goes completely against the biggest motivation in my life aside from my family.
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19 hours ago, Marisawright said:
@DavidIII, one thing that may surprise you is that most doctors don't work for Medicare. You pay them per consultation. They are all in business for themselves, so they can charge you whatever they like.
In the old days, you had to pay the doctor in full, and then fill in a form to claim on Medicare. But you don't get all the money back - Medicare only pays the standard fees, which are less than what most doctors charge. Nowadays, the receptionist will often have an online system whereby you sign a form authorising the practice to collect the standard fee straight from Medicare, and you only have to pay the balance.
There is also a bulk billing system. Under bulk billing, the GP agrees to charge the standard fees. You pay nothing, and the GP collects the fees direct from Medicare. That means the GP makes less money, but they are also allowed to "bulk bill" the government, which greatly reduces administration. They also don't need staff to handle or manage money. Bulk billing saves you money, but there's an incentive for GP's on bulk billing to churn through large numbers of patients quickly.
If you need to see a specialist, most GPs will refer you to a private specialist. There are public specialist clinics, (and some of them are world class), but the waiting lists are long, and most Australians don't want to wait. However, the waiting lists for public specialists are no worse than you're used to in the NHS - so if you're happy with that and would prefer free treatment, speak up and ask about being seen in the public system. An example of the difference that can make - my spinal fusion cost $35,000 with a private specialist, whereas my friend's dad had the same op on the public system for absolutely no charge (before you swoon, I did get $25,000 back from my private health insurance).
Couple of points:
Doctors aren't all in business for themselves - many specialists work at public hospitals and have no other private practice or income.
Wait lists are not necessarily long - I triaged new referrals yesterday and will be seeing many routine referrals in the next month - this is practically unheard of in the NHS. These were almost all bulk billed appointments for people without health insurance. The other thing to bear in mind as an example is that your spinal fusion didn't actually cost $35,000 - that was what you were charged and what it cost you. The public system would have been able to fund the operation and perform it at a fraction of that cost.
The flow of funding and charges in the Aus system is very complex but at the point of care the advantages of it are easy to see from a service delivery point of view when you compare it to the NHS. How the system might cope with a high burden of pandemic respiratory virus cases remains to be seen...
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1 hour ago, Marisawright said:
You'll get that a lot. Just remember that they've got a distorted view, so don't let them influence you. Australians think England is more depressed and the weather is worse than it really is. When you get home, British friends won't understand how you could even consider returning, because they think all Australians live like the kids on Home & Away.
Roughly the same number of people died of covid in the last 48hrs in UK as have died in total in Australia.
Vaccine likely for most in second quarter of next year.
People might distort the weather and the lifestyle but you can't distort those points. Id definitely wait even if you're desperate to get back.
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5 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:
In that case unless you really do dislike the state that invited you there really isn't a great difference between the 189 and 190 in reality.
Most people will give a job 2 years anyway and after that on a 190 you have he same rights of movement as a 189 holder
Good luck with the rest of the process
Just drove back from break in Noosa. Love our jobs. Brisbane is a fabulous place to bring up a young child. Love it here!
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11 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:
It doesn't cost you anymore (other than time) to submit a second EOI for a 189 though (asusming you have 65+ without the sponsorship points). Then whichever offers you an application spot soonest, you can cancel the other EOI
We're committed to 190 now. Medicals on Sunday.
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Woooah!
I'd rather cr@p in my hands and start clapping. If you'll pardon the expression.
If you stay here another six months you are almost certainly not going to expose yourselves or children to a potentially debilitating or fatal disease for which there is a strong likelihood of imminent development of a vaccine.
This is a complete no brainer. Do not go back to the UK at the moment.
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1 hour ago, Raul Senise said:
The results for the September round of invitations shows that applications with scores as low as 65 and submitted as late as July 2020 were invited for 189 visas.
This would indicate that the Department is selecting specific occupations irrespective of score, even though the new Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List is not supposed to apply to the 189 visa.
Yup, I was wondering if we should have actually applied for a 189. We have no intentions of moving at the moment though so will be delighted to get the 190. It feels as if they are moving quite fast on these priority occupation applications too.
Thus far Australia has been an example to the world with the way it has tackled covid.
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30 minutes ago, Marisawright said:
Actually I did say planes were safe, I didn’t say air travel was safe. Lots of crowded indoor spaces before and after the flight which are high risk too
The not reading comment wasn’t directed at anyone, sorry if it read like that. Planes aren’t as safe as used to be believed.
The “Eat out to help out” idea and “cheers” emoticon used by the government after the first lockdown were just stupid.
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2 hours ago, Marisawright said:
The trouble is that it's so hard to fight. We're all diligently washing hands and wiping down groceries, but increasingly, it looks as though surfaces are a very minor source of infection (the studies so far have contaminated surfaces with massive amounts of live virus, which isn't how it would be in the real world).
From the research that's coming out, it seems the biggest risk is just being indoors with other people, and breathing in their infected breath. The virus can hang in the air for much longer than previously thought, and be moved around by the air conditioning. One study suggested tables in restaurants need to be at least 2.5 metres apart.
Funnily enough, planes are fine because the air flow can be set to change over the air very rapidly. On other public transport or in buildings where a high percentage of air is recirculated (or where the air con doesn't work!), it's a real worry.
(Not suggesting we should stop washing hands, of course!)
There was a flight, I think from US to Ireland, that led to over fifty people becoming infected...
Lots of sources - gate, getting on, waiting for plane to start moving, bustling around, all using the same toilet, waiting on the tarmac at the destination, all piling off without the airflow...
If people don't want to read, JAMA have some excellent content on their YouTube channel.
Stay safe and wash your hands.
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25 minutes ago, WeegieDave said:
For a virus with a 99.8% recovery rate we just need to get on with life. The fear mongering by mainstream media has been atrocious! It’s really a mild virus. What about all these hundreds of people who have tested positive in hotel quarantine on return back into Perth? How many have died or been hospitalised??...Zero!
The most terrifying thing about this virus is the way Governments are behaving!
Correct info on the epidemiology and pathogenesis of SARS-Cov-2 is also available...
The most terrifying thing about this virus is the commentary by conspiracy theorists and armchair experts undermining the efforts to control the virus by experts.
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So is my experience with booking in Brisbane the same everywhere?
You have to book what date you can and then check at random times of the day and night to see if earlier appointments are opened up, sometimes having to click through, back and through again to make new ones appear seemingly at random? Who is in charge of this? Is it seen as a test of your commitment?
I have now managed to edge ours forwards to next Sunday. I think I'll settle for that.
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On 26/07/2020 at 19:02, ramot said:
My son was here today so I asked him. Now I know nothing about this, but he said that it had something to do with claiming tax for renting out his UK house for 6 years. Reckoned he went into it thoroughly at the time, and it’s all water under the bridge now, if he was given the wrong information. We were refused in 2003 but we weren’t PR and thought if we don’t ask we won’t get!
While it might be water under the bridge, that link suggests it might be worth digging out the contract if it was a new home and retrospectively applying as it specifically says old contracts may be eligible?
Potentially an easy keyboard-based $15K?!
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Qld/NSW opening on 3rd excluding greater Sydney.
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1 hour ago, Ausvisitor said:
Given the only people that are getting grants at the moment are health related professions, and that they actually need health professionals, and they still have 180k places to fill in the immigration quota this year, it stands to reason that for the very few careers that are being made offers, these offers would quickly require less points as they move further down the queue in that profession.
If you are a medic related professional wanting to move to AUS, this is probably the very best time (in terms of likely invitation) you are going to see for a decade. The Oz health system needs to import personnel and there is no competing pressure from other industries for immigration slots
It's an ill wind that blows no one any good...
(Though I would say covid certainly is an ill wind.)
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54 minutes ago, Marisawright said:
I think the article you're referencing is this one:
and this is the llst, for those who don't want to download a document:
All but one of the occupations is health-related in some way, so it's not that surprising really.
But, I'm sure you'll agree you don't need to look far back to find people being told they needed at least 90 points for a 189 to stand any chance whatsoever. This appears not to be the case from these data.
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An interesting article on Peakmigration and a freedom of info request reveal in June 189 and 491 invitations were targeted at occupations (att.) rather than those with the highest points...
If not on the list and offshore, applications might take an exceptionally long time now with reduced numbers of slots taking effect.
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Scratch the second question - everything has to be done at an approved contractor.
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Submitted 26th Oct. ACROs uploaded yesterday. s56 request for Medicals today...
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Queensland 190s
in Working and Skilled Visas
Posted
Yeah. Nothing is ever reassuring either. I have depression which is now well managed but needed an admission earlier in the year and my wife had a positive IGRA for screening to work in the US and had 3 months of latent TB treatment with rifinah a few years ago. Ours say "health examinations ready for assessment - no action required" while our toddler's says "health clearance provided". As you say - hope everything is ok!