How does Australia's health system compare with the UK?

[MARYROSE02 2,007]

Australia has avoided the worst aspects of all-out private care, as exemplified by the US (high cost, lack of cover for the poor and chronic sick, which is only now being put right). It also largely escapes some features of NHS-style state-funded care (lack of choice, treatment delays, questionable quality of care).

 

It does well on the universally acknowledged standard of infant mortality, at 4.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. Britain records 4.8 per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy at birth for Australians is 81.4 years, compared to 79.5 in Britain.

 

Calculations of potentially preventable deaths in advanced economies put Australia at a commendable 71 per 100,000 population (for 2002-3) compared to 103 per 100,000 in UK.

 

Healthcare expenditure in Australia as a proportion of GDP is 8.9 per cent, 0.5 per cent more than Britain.

 

The country also has more practising doctors than Britain – 2.8 per 1,000 population, against the UK’s 2.5

[Harpodom 6,299]

swings and roundabouts MARY.

 

better in some aspects, not so good in others. Both are very good health systems overall, with the common denominator being that if you're suddenly taken seriously ill, you get well looked after, and for free.

 

Personal experience of hospitals in both places is that Aus hospitals on the whole feel cleaner, but that's about the only differences I can see.

 

There was a report published this week showingh that hospital mortality rates in the UK are higher at weekends. Well, HELLO! Of course they are! It's universal, as is the change over time for newly qualified docs

[Guest Guest31881]

I think the biggest difference between the UK NHS and the Australian medicare system is that the NHS is free at the point of service for nearly everything. Dental care comes under the NHS (if you could find nhs dentist) and (when I left) the maximum charge for dental work was £190 per course of treatment, and that covered everything you needed doing and no Charge for an Ambulance call out.

 

I have had a lot of dealings with the Medicare system and I am quite happy with the way my wife and myself have been looked after and the treatment given to both of us. I do not think there is any difference in that respect. You could even say that the Post Code lottery that exists in the UK, (depending where you live depends what treatment is paid for) exists in Australia as each state have different ideas about providing services. On the whole i think they are very similar and both have their faults and their good points.

[ozziepom 202]

We've found the health system in Aus absolutely great and far better funded than the UK one. We have to pay for private insurance as there are tax penalties over a certain income but this is fair enough IMHO.

 

The funny thing is although dental is not included all sorts of stuff you don't get in the UK is, like certain holistic treatments (chiropathy for instance).

 

Dental is absolutely extortionate here, I've heard of folk flying to Thailand to get root canal.

 

Its also weird to have to pay for Ambulance cover (or be changed a fortune if you need one).

[Guest Sir Les Patterson]

Its also weird to have to pay for Ambulance cover (or be changed a fortune if you need one).

 

Not here in Queensland you don't.........as long as you are a resident

[Guest famousfive]

We paid $700 for an ambulance call out for my husband here in NSW last year

[ozziepom 202]

Not here in Queensland you don't.........as long as you are a resident

 

Good to know - I'm in QLD but the ambos are part of or PH cover anyway.

[Johndoe 12,734]

Good to know - I'm in QLD but the ambos are part of or PH cover anyway.

 

I'd negotiate a price drop in your health cover then, seeing as it's free.

[Guest SupportPants]

The health care here is perfectly acceptable although the system of bulk billing for somethings not others is confusing as is the way doctors sometimes seem to persuade you to try 'new and better' drugs which cost alot. Dentistry is ridiculous and my partner and i have actually flown to Asia for whitening and a crown as it was silly money here. We spend $90 a month on prescriptions compared to 19 quid in the UK. Does the extra cost justify the ease of access to doctors? I don't know. Hospital wise we've actually had worse casualty delays than in central London.

[Guest littlesarah]

far better funded than the UK one.

 

Primary care services are not well-funded at all. I've observed that whilst some priority groups (like people with diabetes) receive adequate primary care (e.g. physio, podiatry), other groups (people with rheumatoid diseases) don't receive the same input (at no cost to the patient) as that offered in the NHS in the UK.

 

Personally, I have some concerns about the use of private allied health professionals to provide care for people with complex needs who could benefit from a team approach. But for some patients, there is no team available in the public health system, so they have to make do with a much more fragmented approach. There isn't much evidence about this, but I hope to devote some time and energy to research in this area (once I finish my PhD, in the next 3 years, hopefully!)

 

However, I am the first to say that in many ways the two systems are similar, and public health workers generally work very hard with often limited resources. (Such is the nature of working in the public sector...)

[roger2shirts 112]

If you have private insurance its good - if not you are taking a chance on the State and its certainly not free! Very commercial and money making from what I have seen - unnecessary tests, procedures and surgeries performed because the insurance paysor the patient does.

You need to be careful who you see here - but otherwise it has areas of world class excellence.

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

I think the NHS is the best there is, mainly because it is free, our GP's are brilliant and the wife has had a number of illnesses this last year and they have been brilliant, also my daughter is just about to have braces which again will be free, i think they cost about 6k in Oz.

[Harpodom 6,299]

I think the NHS is the best there is, mainly because it is free, our GP's are brilliant and the wife has had a number of illnesses this last year and they have been brilliant, also my daughter is just about to have braces which again will be free, i think they cost about 6k in Oz.

 

You're not having second thoughts are you jim?

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

You're not having second thoughts are you jim?

 

 

I have had second, third and fourth thoughts about emigrating, we both have really good well paid jobs, with good pensions and early retirement, we are mortgage free and want for nothing, but ............... i was a £10 pom along with 4 cousins in the 1970's but i never went, i got cold feet and Australia is an itch that i need to scratch, but the wife is 50/50 and she is obviously in charge, but ............. the main reason both of us would go, would be for a brighter future for the kids, things are really grim here at the moment.