Do you know Health System in Australia? Learn now

I want to bring an interesting topic today. If you are new to Australia, you may not be really interested to know about this yet as you are super excited with your move to a beautiful country. But it is important to know and will be handy when you need it;

General Practitioners (GPs): These are Doctors locally situated in your suburb or area. Every Suburb has its own Medical Practice and a Chemist (Medical Shop) close by. If you search in Google for your suburb for Medical Practitioners you find a list of doctors that are available in your area.

These are General Practitioners who treat you initially and refer to a specialist if any further advice required on your health condition.  So don’t forget to visit them when you fall sick.

Home Visiting GP Services: Australia has introduced new services called “after hours GP”. This facility is very handy when you have kids less than 5 years old. You can call them and they visit and treat you at your home.

This usually operates on weeknights, weekends and public holidays. There are many services like 13CURE, 13SICK and others. We use these services for our kids more often. This was very much relieving especially when you are a new parent.

Emergency located in the Hospital: Every suburb has a close by Hospital. If you feel emergency, just visit the ‘Emergency’ section located in the Hospital. This has a waiting time from 1 hour to 10 hours depending on your emergency levels.

Ambulance: This is used only in super emergency or life threatening situations. You can ‘000’, Ambulance arrive, does first aid and takes you to the hospital. You need to pay from your pocket for this service or can use your Private Health Insurance.

I want to share you my experience on this; we went for shopping to buy something for our little daughter when she was 9 months old. Unfortunately, we had an accident, a 5 kg pram fell on her from the back and her head hit the ground. She had a small and deep cut on her forehead, the blood started dripping all over her face and body. She was wet in her blood.

We both were in panic and looking at her to see whether she was ok. Immediately the shop attendants called the Emergency and the Ambulance arrived just in 10-12 minutes (Luckily we were close to Hospital), did first aid and took us to the Hospital. They were so friendly and very good. They treated my daughter with a small procedure and we were home on the same day.

After couple of weeks, we got a Bill home from NSW Ambulance instructing us to pay the cost of Ambulance. We gave our Private Insurance details and all were good.

Note: If you have Medicare Card, you do not need to pay any cost except for Ambulance. If you are a student, avail your Overseas Student Health Card services you will get some refund for the fee paid.

So friends stay safe and healthy. But keep this information in mind when needed.