Australia health system

Sorry that there has not been an update in over a week, but I have a two year old daughter who has had a fever for over 6 days now. She has unwell for almost 3 weeks now and don’t know what to do any longer.

It started with a flu about 3 weeks, not keeping in fluids or solids… Her fever dissappeared within 3 days, but never really recovered.

Then last Sunday she woke with a fever at 39.7 Deg, I gave her Panadol (Paracetamol) regularly and of course cool baths, Monday arrived and there was no change and she started vomiting again, so off to the doctor, as our doctor bulk-bills, all we provided was our Medicare Card. He said she had a viral infection and could not give prescribe any medication. Only to advised us to keep giving her liquids and Panadol to keep the fever down.

On Tuesday she started coughing, and coughing and more coughing, again not keeping in anything. Went back to the doctor, who gave us a letter to see a Paediatrician at the Emergency Section of a local public hospital. When we arrived there, the wait was about 4 hours before we were seen to, which is common at Public hospitals. The emergency doctor saw her and gave her Panadol and said that she was not dehydrated and did not see the need to talk to Paediatrician. The doctor said we should go home, as there was no place for her at the hospital, but if things get worse to come in again. Through the night she got shivers from the fever, but I was too scared to go back to the hospital only to wait all that time and be sent home again. So just held her throughout the night.

By Thursday I could see her struggling to breathe, and stopped breathing in between with all the coughing, a friend told me to call our state healthline 13HEALTH. They immediately sent an ambulance, as they did not want to take any chances, the ambulance arrived within less than 5 minutes ! In the ambulance they gave her oxygen and she was responding, but her fever was high, even though I was trying to keep it down with baths and Panadol as per recommended dosage on bottle.

As we do not currently have medical insurance or private health here we again ended up a the local hospital. Still with a fever, the nurse gave her Panadol, within an hour she seemed ‘fine’, not vomiting, coughing and was sitting up. But this time a doctor attended to us immediately, so going by Ambulance got a quicker response than arriving at Emergency without an ambulance! Within 2 hours of arrival at hospital we were back home again.

Friday I went back to the doctor, he said that she did need to see a paediatrician and said that he doesn’t understand why they didn’t take note of his letter, nevertheless, I said I didn’t even mind paying see a Paed, and the GP wrote the same letter to the emergency of a private hospital, this cost me $220 dollars, but got the advice of a Paed. He said he could keep her in hospital for $850 p.n or look after her at home as she could pick up other germs in the ward.. And gave me his mobile number, he said that if she still was not well on Monday morning 7am, I should give him a call and he will see her in the day. So until today, she still had not seen a Paediatrician.

She still has the fever this morning, and will let you know how she is doing soon.

The general public health system in general is as follows, you see your general GP who bulk-bills (he is paid by the government, when you produce your Medicare card), so there is no cost to you, but when you wish to see a specialist there are extremely long waiting lists… unless it is really life threatening like a heart-attack.You only pay for your medication and if you have a concession card (low income earner or pensioner), you pay about $2-$10for medication!

In the meanwhile I recommend you have private health or health insurance, if you have children or plan to have… I will be taking out some soon, just looking around at the ISelect website for the options available.I have been told that ISelect offer loads of choice from most Health Insurers in Australia and advice on obtaining great health insurance cover, best of all everything can be done one online quickly! I really do not wish to be in this situation again..

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