New changes affecting panel doctors,important

[itsmylife]

Well the panel doctors have been updated with the new extremely reduced list and am disgusted to see that Northern Ireland does not have a panel doctor at all. Again I am very grateful for the original poster who highlighted the beginnings of these changes, you have undoubtedly saved me hundreds of pounds as we had our medicals last week.

 

Here are the location of UK panel doctors as of this morning, please check the website if you need for info:

Greater London

 

Brentwood

 

Heathrow

 

Knightsbridge

 

Midlands and East Anglia

 

Birmingham

 

North England

 

Manchester

 

Scotland

 

Edinburgh

 

Glasgow

 

 

Wales

 

Cardiff

 

(Ireland for anyone affected is Dublin, Cork and Waterford)

 

Alot of people are going to have to travel long distances now

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi All

 

Here is the current medical list for the UK:

 

United Kingdom – Panel Doctors

 

Here is the new one for the Republic of Ireland:

 

Republic of Ireland - Panel Doctors

 

I have to say that I think whoever has been in charge of the "review" in the UK is barking mad. Scotland will have two medical facilities 50 miles from each other. The whole of the South of the UK - from Cornnwall to Kent - now has nobody at all. The Aussies do not seem to have looked at a map. The Bristol Channel separates the West Country from Wales. The Thames separates the Eastern half of Southern England and the Thames is not a stream. Nobody with the slightest local knowledge of the UK has been involved with the review, evidently.

 

The Republic of Ireland is just as bad. Dublin, Cork and Waterford are all on roughly similar latitudes, I believe, with nobody in Northern Ireland at all. Evidently the Aussies are not aware that Ireland is divided into two separate countries with different Governments and different currencies.

 

I think that when DIAC realise what a cock-up this "review" is, they might well go crawling back to some of the doctors from the old List and I wouldn't blame those doctors if they told DIAC to sod off.

 

My suggestion is that everybody who will have to travel for more than 90 miles or for more than 2 hours should COMPLAIN - loudly, clearly and in writing by e-mail - to the Australian High Commissioner in the UK and also to the British High Commissioner in Canberra. The details of both are below:

 

Directory.gov.au

 

Australia treats London as the base for Dublin so everyone in Ireland - north and south - would be justified in complaining to the Aussie High Commissioner in London.

 

Australia, Canberra, British High Commission

 

Details for the British HC in Canberra are above. At least the British delegation in Canberra know about the geography of the UK, so my advice is to complain to the British High Commissioner in Australia as well as to the Aussie High Commissioner in London because the British delegation in Canberra can easily go and make a fuss at DIAC's HQ - which is also in Canberra. This sort of thing is what the British Foreign Office is for so they should be used, in my view.

 

The Southern Irish who will be affected should complain to the Irish Ambassador in Canberra and the details are below:

 

http://www.embassyofireland.au.com/home/index.aspx?id=42635

 

http://www.embassyofireland.au.com/home/index.aspx?id=42636

 

Address all complaints to the Ambassador or the two High Commissioners personally. I recommend that those affected should take this particular complaint to the top, not to the junior clerks at the bottoms of the respective heaps.

 

DIAC have been talking about a "review." At no time have they admitted that "review" actually meant - and was intended to mean - "drastic reduction" until Mr Wilden e-mailed me to tell me about that. Doubtless the drastic reduction will save DIAC some money and put visa applicants to extra expense and inconvenience instead.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest rachbarlow]

Hi Gill,

 

I have just read your post above, and to be honest this 'change' is just another load of rubbish. I will have approx a 200 mile round trip, compared to the 40 mile round trip as before. I know some people have alot further than me, and I feel for them.

 

I agree these people obviously have no idea on how the UK and Ireland are set out, the traffic we have to endure, and the length of journeys esp at busy times.

 

It was probably some-one from oz, on thousands $$$$$$$, who flew first class, and had too much moet on the way!! Then there was the game of pin the pom on the medical map...... enough said!

[Guest KerryCraig]

Hi Guys,

 

Really really fed up with these new changes, we will have a 600 mile round trip!!! as we live at the bottom end of Cornwall, who ever made these chaneges obviousley didnt look at a map of the UK, I suggest they go back to school and do a geography test!!!:arghh:

[Guest rachbarlow]

we will have a 600 mile round trip!!!

 

Now that is ridiculous!!! :yellow_guy_crazy_ty

[Peach]

I just noticed that my selected panel Dr had disappeared from the list. The Bridge Clinic Immigration Medicals page So I phoned them up and thankfully they were able to confirm they are still panel Doctors, the error is DIACs who have promised to fix it shortly (the error was noticed last week!).

 

So I wonder how many others are incorrectly omitted?

[SHANO7]

Great !!

 

Hope this gets sorted as when we are hopefully finally called for medicals we have to Travel from Plymouth - Cardiff. Absolutely ridiculous and expensive.

 

What are the chances of this being reviewed as not having a Panel Doctor in the SW of England is logistacally insane.

 

Shane

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Guys,

 

Really really fed up with these new changes, we will have a 600 mile round trip!!! as we live at the bottom end of Cornwall, who ever made these chaneges obviousley didnt look at a map of the UK, I suggest they go back to school and do a geography test!!!:arghh:

 

Hi KerryCraig

 

600 miles in the UK is ridiculous - especially if you try to do it all in one day. In your shoes I would complain to the two High Commissioners - at length and loudly - and I would do so soon.

 

In 2005 an old lady from Devon obtained a Contributory Parent visa. She was 97 years old at the time. (Yes, 97, not 79.) I wouldn't ask somebody that old to go that far - not even in 2 days.

 

I'd give DIAC some hell instead and remind them about the time when a Jobsworth of a DIAC clerk ignored Mrs Agha's own GP - Dr Chris Towie - and ended up killing old Mrs Agha as a result. Dr Towie said she was too ill to make a round trip into Melbourne to see the DIAC approved doctors there. The twit of a clerk failed to pass any of Dr Towie's letters on to the Chief Medical Officer so that a proper doctor could get in touch with another doctor for the purpose of doing what the Hippocratic Oath requires from doctors - which is preserving lives:

 

19 Apr 2006: Commonwealth Ombudsman releases report into DIMA’s management of Mrs Aziza Agha’s case - Commonwealth Ombudsman

 

When the Press used the Freedom of Information Act in order to get the facts out of DIAC, soon after Mrs Agha's death, the following emerged:

 

Concerns mount over DIMIA's medical provider. 12/10/2005. ABC News Online

 

AFTER Mrs Agha had died - by which time it was too late for any senior DIAC staff to step in and do anything useful - then these senior staff all agreed that the HSA doctor was out of his mind. So did the relevant doctor according to the Aussie Press.

 

There was uproar in Australia at the time. It was obvious that the old lady need not have died if somebody had used a bit of common-sense soon enough.

 

There would be hell to pay in the UK if a member of a family died or were injured in any way because of the travelling caused by the stupidity of Australia's public service - DIAC - in the UK. When the British Government is doing everything to prevent the British population from making unnecessary journeys by road, the Australian Government is busily promoting unnecessary use of the roads - in a foreign country which is the UK. The Aussie High Commissioner for the UK must be crazy to want to tread on the British Government's toes in this way, it seems to me.

 

Frequently, elderly British Parents want to visit their children in Australia. My mother visited Oz in 2005/2006 - she was 85 at the time. It used to be possible for elderly Britons to go and see their own GP - s/he knows the patient far better than any Panel Doctor knows the person, after all, and the local GP is nearby. However DIAC have now taken to insisting that an old dear from Cornwall must travel 600 miles to Heathrow and back solely for the purpose of asking a Panel Doctor there to say whether or not this old dear will be well enough to go to Oz for six measly months:

 

Changes to Health Matrix, Health PAM and Medical Treatment Visa PAM Released 9 November 2009

 

It will put the elderly parent off the whole idea of visiting Australia. The Panel Doctor will only have to complete a 2-page form if the Parent reaches him anyway. It is a complete waste of time and money for such a simple form - which is on the website of the Australian High Commission in London - upon which the weblink to Health Information does not seem to be working at present.

 

The few Panel Doctors remaining are all doctors. They will agree that it is a complete waste of their own time and the old person's time and money once they have completed few of the new Aged Visitor Medical forms. Many elderly people - such as Mum - have never had a driving licence. Mum is in a wheelchair so she can't use trains and buses on her own. Presumably the clowns from DIAC think that Mum should pay for a taxi to take her to Heathrow and back (70 to 80 miles each way from me, depending on where Longford actually is in relation to Heathrow Airport and the relevant motorways from Southampton to Longford - the Airport is about 70 miles) for an Aged Visitor Medical and that she should pay for the taxi to wait for her at Longford's Panel Doctors' surgery so as to bring her back to Southampton afterwards.

 

The new impracticality of the medicals will reduce the British wish to waste any money on travelling to Australia even for a visit, despite David Wilden's claim on Page 15 of this thread. If elderly Britons decide to stop wasting their Tourist Shekels in and for the sake of Australia, that is the Aussie Government's problem, not mine. The elderly Parent's children - the Aussie Citizens and Permanent Residents - will suffer directly as a result but the Australian public service is as useless as the British civil service - too fragmented and also too stupid for properly joined-up THINKING to get even a toe-hold, clearly.

 

An elderly Parent who is capable of a long journey in order to visit DIAC's Panel Doctor near Heathrow is definitely well enough to be able to fly out of Heathrow to Australia with Singapore Airlines. Australia's own carrier - Qantas - also use Heathrow but Qantas are as hopeless with elderly people as the Australian Government is. However Singapore Airlines treat the elderly with the utmost respect and concern - as if the elderly person were the crew's own beloved Granny or Grandpa - because Chinese culture requires nothing less.

 

DIAC & Qantas evidently think that it is OK to treat the elderly like cattle but the Singaporeans definitely don't in our experience of different airlines with my own elderly and disabled Mum. British Airways and Qantas were equally hopeless with Mum - which reflects the Governments of the two countries as well. Malaysian Airlines are too chaotic on the ground to trust them with Mum, though they are good in the air. Singapore Airlines have always been brilliant with Mum in every possible way.

 

Saving money - which is the only real reason for the daft "review" in the UK - is NOT acceptable if it risks damaging or ending even one human life in my view.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

PS - the Aussie High Commission website is working, after all. It is just working extremely slowly today for some reason. The 2-page Aged Visitor Medical form is below - finally!

 

http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/files/0022_Aged_Visitor_Health_Check.pdf

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi All

 

Sandch is a member of Poms in Oz as well as of British Expats. On BE, he runs the SPARKLY Contributory Parents thread, which is here:

 

STILL VERY SPARKLY contributory parent visa thread part 3. - Page 71 : British Expat Discussion Forum

 

Sandch has made the following comment today:

 

An attempt to deter applications, and/or to help people who have to apply to feel bitter about it and about Australian government processes before they even arrive?

 

Now we all know that's not true but it's the effect. Why do government departments around the world need to be wastelands when it comes to positive individual attributes? Perhaps it's an unwritten rule that you should not take your humanity into the building; pick it up again at 5pm as you leave.

 

Hard to believe that a real person initiated this. We'd love to know who!

 

I could not agree with him more.

 

The BE thread reveals any number of Contributory Parent applicants who have visited / are visiting / plan to make extended visits to Oz whilst awaiting their CPVs. Most of them are under 75 and so will not need to make possibly lengthy trips to see Panel Doctors in order to make mere visits to Oz.

 

However a few have been / are/ will be very ancient by the time they wish to visit Oz. Mr Wilden claims the Australia does not wish to reduce the size of the migration program. If he is right then he and his colleagues in DIAC are guilty of a failure to do some joined-up thinking via a simple addition of 2+2. Whatever DIAC wants, the medical changes in the UK will inevitably have a negative effect on the number of Britons who wish to travel to Oz - for a variety of reasons and using a variety of different visas.

 

The Minister and Mr Wilden might not want to reduce the size of the Immigration Program for British applicants but the medical changes in the UK will inevitably cause that result, no matter what the Aussies think they might want, it seems to me.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

I just noticed that my selected panel Dr had disappeared from the list. The Bridge Clinic Immigration Medicals page So I phoned them up and thankfully they were able to confirm they are still panel Doctors, the error is DIACs who have promised to fix it shortly (the error was noticed last week!).

 

So I wonder how many others are incorrectly omitted?

 

Hi Peach

 

You already know that the Bridge Clinic used to be included and still are. A newbie to the List has never heard of the Bridge Clinic and has no idea how to contact them. So he'll contact someone miles away from him instead - inevitably.

 

When DIAC's numpties can't even get a simple clerical list right and can't get the geography of, and travelling problems in, the UK right either - what other mistakes do DIAC's staff make regularly and routinely?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Great !!

 

Hope this gets sorted as when we are hopefully finally called for medicals we have to Travel from Plymouth - Cardiff. Absolutely ridiculous and expensive.

 

What are the chances of this being reviewed as not having a Panel Doctor in the SW of England is logistacally insane.

 

Shane

 

 

Hi Shane

 

According to Mr Wilden, on Page 15 of this thread, the Aussie medics have done their review. He says there are to be 15 DIAC-approved medical facilities throughout the UK. There were 10 or 11 on the UK List yesterday - depending on whether a particular group of doctors who work in 2 different parts of London - counts as one facility or two.

 

Surely DIAC has not been so stupid as to produce and to publish a new List which is FULL of clerical errors?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest austibeach]

Well thanks Gill for keeping me informed, however as the list stands, we will be faced with a similar journey as SHAN07, as Cardiff is the nearest option for us, which far from being the 90 miles as suggested by Mr. Wilden, is in fact nearer to double that mileage and will incur a 3 - 4 hour drive.

I guess we come into the 5% gategory that is outside of their calculations, although I am very doubtful that 95% will be within 90 miles of a panel doctor.

 

Eric.

[Guest The Whalley Rangers]

Forgive me but I'm about to launch into a moan.....

 

It's just one set back after another - capping of 175s last March, our agent then went bust (Fourcorners), capping of 175s then rolled over into 2009-10, then September 09 changes....!

 

We submitted our 175 in May 08, had a CO and submitted all our checks by March 09. I called DIAC in April 09 and was told our visa was in a 'grant ready' batch. Following the rolling-over of the 175 capping in July last year we applied for SS which we got in December. However, our medicals have just expired and so will need repeating once we get re-assigned a CO, whenever that will be. And now they reduce the list of panel docs!!

 

We live in Manchester so this is no big deal, except the expense of having to repeat our meds, and the fact we can;t go back to Huddersfield panel doc which was about £200 cheaper than Manchester for our family of 4.

 

I think it is appaling DIAC assigned us a CO, who then requested our checks, and then DIAC changed the goal posts which resulted in us losing your CO and letting your meds expire. It is great they are now processing cat 5 applications which had CO and checks done prior to the Sept changes, but what about others who also had checks requested by COs!

 

Feel better now I've got that off my chest!

 

Back to waiting................

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi the Whalley Rangers

 

I think it is appaling DIAC assigned us a CO, who then requested our checks, and then DIAC changed the goal posts which resulted in us losing your CO and letting your meds expire. It is great they are now processing cat 5 applications which had CO and checks done prior to the Sept changes, but what about others who also had checks requested by COs!

 

 

In fairness to DIAC, their senior people did not order the 2009 changes. They are merely public servants who have to obey the Minister fir Immi's orders. The Minister is a pollie and there has to be a General Election during 2010.

 

I believe that the Minister has been trying to appease the powerful Aussie trades unions and he has also been trying to appease the Aussie Voters. At the same time, he has been trying to tackle a HUGE demand for GSM visas - which greatly exceed the available supply of them. About 60,000 GSM visas are available each year, The demand for them has risen to about 145,000. A LOT of knowledegeable pundits believe that the reason for the enormous imbalance is the Student Visa program. A vast and apparently uncontrolled rise in the number of students heading for Australia in order to study, caused by those Students applying for GSM visas afterwards, was always going to come to a head at some point. Over 2 years ago, DIAC officials started warning the last Aussie Govt and this present Govt that crunch-point would be reached in about 2009.

 

The Governments did nothing so crunch-point has been reached. The Minister for Immi is now running around trying to solve the immediate problem (the backlog) and he is trying to prevent it from arising again in the future (his changes of 1st January 2010.)

 

At the same time, the demand from prospective Students has dropped off dramatically because the ones who have not yet wasted any money on Australia have realised that doing so might not be a bright idea.

 

I think that the situation will sort itself out but that it will take 3 to 5 years to sort it out. In a well-managed public company, the shareholders would throw the Board of Directors out for this sort of fiasco. However Governments always wait until a crisis has occurred before they try to do anything about preventing it from arising in the first place. God knows why but they always do. The British Government is equally bad.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Les Avalook]

With such a jump in the fees quoted by clinics on the reduced list anyone wondering if the clinics have bid to be on the panel doctors list and part of the increase is a fee to DIAC?

 

For many of us we will have to include overnight accommodation to the cost as some clinics finish appointments at 1.00PM:mad:

[Stevenson]

Hi Gill,

 

I spoke to you on page 2 of this thread, after calling the Glasgow based medical center, and was told that they were no longer on the list, I see that on page 15 of you post from Mr Wilden that Glasgow is on that list, does this mean that they are now allowed to do medicals again.

 

Sorry to ask but I can't get through to them at the moment.

What I am meaning to ask is the list on page 15 of the panel doctor a new one from when I last spoke to you.

 

Thanks

scott

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Scott

 

The Lists that I posted on 26th January, immediately below the content of Mr Wilden's e-mail to me, were taken from the DIAC/Oz House websites on 26th January 2010.

 

DIAC then changed the lists according to the person on Page 16, so I downloaded the new Lists on 1st February.

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/76179-new-changes-affecting-panel-doctors-important-16.html

 

(PiO is more useful than a Diary because the forum's database maintains the diary and it doesn't lie!)

 

According to the 1st February Lists, Glasgow and Edinburgh are both going to be included - even though they are only 50 miles apart and are equidistant (more or less) unless you live in one or other of the cities.

 

However on 2nd Feb 2010, Peach said this:

 

I just noticed that my selected panel Dr had disappeared from the list. The Bridge Clinic Immigration Medicals page So I phoned them up and thankfully they were able to confirm they are still panel Doctors, the error is DIACs who have promised to fix it shortly (the error was noticed last week!).

 

So I wonder how many others are incorrectly omitted?

 

 

The most recent list is neither complete or correct, it now seems. Only DIAC could manage a clerical blunder like that but they have managed it all the same, it appears.

 

I'm now waiting for DIAC to get their bluddy lists right because if there is one known error with them, how many of the other entries or omissions are errors as well?

 

I think you will need to ask Dr Bryden's Practice Manager what the score is with Dr Helen Bryden if she would be more convenient for you, plus keep an eye on DIAC's blundering, halting progress with the Lists, I think.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Stevenson]

Thanks Gill,

 

I will call them again later today.

 

Your a wee star

[wellieboots]

I had my meds done in Glasgow on Tuesday - they are being taken off the list, BUT they can still do meds there at the moment - they have to stop on 22nd Feb though.

After that it will be Edinburgh only

 

HTH.

[Les Avalook]

For information the Bridge Clinic do Mondays 5pm to 8pm, Thursdays from 2pm and Friday mornings so rather more hour options.

 

They have said they may add Tuesday to their list if bookings pick up.

 

Price wise at £193 per adult plus £8 postage they seem OK, just the snag of being the wrong side of London for us and 107 miles away, but that beats Birmingham as on the site for East Anglia:shocked: which is 173 miles from us and £260 per adult and only open for appointments between 10.00am and 1.00pm.

 

No price yet for the Knightsbridge clinic but the address makes me think ££££££s.

[Stevenson]

I had my meds done in Glasgow on Tuesday - they are being taken off the list, BUT they can still do meds there at the moment - they have to stop on 22nd Feb though.

After that it will be Edinburgh only

 

HTH.

 

Thanks wellieboots, saves me the phone call.

 

scott:biggrin:

[southtate]

Hey Les et al

Knightsbridge clinic website says £220 for medical+x-ray and HIV test. More prices and info at

Knightsbridge Doctors Visa Medicals

Hope this helps?!

ps this is my first post..!!

[k8bug79]

Hi Guys,

 

Really really fed up with these new changes, we will have a 600 mile round trip!!! as we live at the bottom end of Cornwall, who ever made these chaneges obviousley didnt look at a map of the UK, I suggest they go back to school and do a geography test!!!:arghh:

 

 

same here. Although I have noticed that Cardiff is a little closer plus you can fly from Newquay to Cardiff, Manchester, Edingburgh and Birmingham possibly even Newcastle (but don't think there is any there) so may be quicker and cheaper to do that. Its rediculous I have 3 kids, 6, 3 and 1 and I have to traipse all over the country to get them done. I just hope everything can be done in one day otherwise it'll be as expensive as the visa itself

[k8bug79]

same here. Although I have noticed that Cardiff is a little closer plus you can fly from Newquay to Cardiff, Manchester, Edingburgh and Birmingham possibly even Newcastle (but don't think there is any there) so may be quicker and cheaper to do that. Its rediculous I have 3 kids, 6, 3 and 1 and I have to traipse all over the country to get them done. I just hope everything can be done in one day otherwise it'll be as expensive as the visa itself

 

 

 

Actually just checked that and to fly to Manchester (there are no flights to Cardiff) would be £440 for us all!!! So will have to train it to cardiff or drive so about 600 miles round trip it is

 

Plus just checked trainline, we could get a train to cardiff at 10 and would arrive at 3.30 but would have to get a train back at 5.30 to get home for 22.30, next train would be after 12. I am guessing an hour isn't long enough to do 4 mdicals!! The train is £189 and then we would need accomodation on top of this!! Although that is cheaper than flying to Manchester.

[Guest KerryCraig]

Actually just checked that and to fly to Manchester (there are no flights to Cardiff) would be £440 for us all!!! So will have to train it to cardiff or drive so about 600 miles round trip it is

 

Plus just checked trainline, we could get a train to cardiff at 10 and would arrive at 3.30 but would have to get a train back at 5.30 to get home for 22.30, next train would be after 12. I am guessing an hour isn't long enough to do 4 mdicals!! The train is £189 and then we would need accomodation on top of this!! Although that is cheaper than flying to Manchester.

 

Hi, thanks for the info,!! its ridiculous!! we will end up going to Birmingham as we have family there so can at least stay over a night save some cost, its just taking the kids out of school for 2 days is not good!!! and they obviousley only do the medicals on week days, did ask if they did weekends! thought worth a try!!!!!!!!! So another hurdle.... Where abouts in Cornwall are you? we are just outside Penzance.