medicare - surgery/pregnancy

[yumimumi]

hi, would like some advice

 

i am approx 6 wks pregnant, and am flying to australia in october when i will be around 13 wks pregnant.

i have recently had surgery, but now i am pregnant future surgical intervention has to be delayed until later in the pregnancy.

im not sure what i need to do first upon my arrival. obviously i need to sort medicare out, but am i going to get stung for my antenatal care and surgery.

who do i contact regarding my pregnancy, is it like the uk, where i just register with a gp and they refer me to maternity services.

how do i get registered with a surgeon

am really confused

nicola

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Hi Nicola, the first thing to do is get yourself registered with a Dr. You will then need to decide if you want to go private or public. Or you could split this. Some people prefer to go private so they have the same team all the way through.

[keily]

hey nicola u will get the same antenatal care as u would in the uk ....once u have registered for medicare find urself a doctor to register with preferably one who does bulk billing (this will save u upfront costs] the doctor will then give u a choice of hospitals that u may wish to use ....either public or private the choice is urs .....public u obviously dont pay ....private u would and to be honest ive never heard anyone in my 2.5 yrs of being here ever saying anything bad about public hospitals ....

 

mrs keily

[Skani]

First you need to see a G.P. You don't have to "register" in the sense of staying with that particular doctor: if you so choose you are free to go to any G.P. at any time.

 

The GP will refer you to obstetric care and a surgeon.

You can choose to use the public system - the local public hospital for both obstetrics and surgery. However, if the surgery is "elective" and not regarded as an emergency, you may have to wait a long time. It depends where you will be living and how overburdened the public system is in that area.

 

The other choice is a private obstetrician and surgeon - to whom your GP can also refer you.

However they will cost. Even if you join a private medical insurance fund you are unlikely to be eligible for obstetric refunds as there is normally a waiting period (of about a year) and there may be a waiting period for the surgical care if it is for a pre-existing condition (and that would depend on the medical fund you joined.)

[tisme]

On arrival, register with Medicare, equivilant to NHS. Even if you take out private cover you will not be covered for this pregnancy and will have to wait to be covered for your pre existing medical condition, so unless your prepared to pay throught the nose, using the public system is really your only choice. The public sytem is, in the most part a good service, I had all my babies as a public patient and had very good care. You don't need to register with a GP, so if your not comfortable with the first one you go to, you can change and keep doing so until you find one you like. Some 'bulk bill' ie. bill the government direct the schedued amount so there is no short fall between what the Government rebate, and what the Dr. charges, some don't, ie. charge more than what the goverment rebate, so you may have to pay a gap.

 

As you have had medical problems in the past I would recommend you bring your medical records.