In Australia there’s a notice in the ER which says (I’m just trying to recall the numbers now) that if you don’t have either the government medicare-issue card or some other form of insurance you’ll be charged $500 for the consultation and $5,000 per night if you use one of the intensive care facilities. Some number like that, but the orders of magnitude are correct.

The health care system in Australia is what could be described as “universal”, but it is really one where the public system provides a baseline and people with a little more money can buy private health insurance on top of it. We do and so do a lot of others, just because they want faster care and a better choice of doctors and procedures than the public system can provide. The use of private insurance has unloaded the public system to a degree, allowing it to focus on the older and those who for whatever reason, have opted to remain in medicare alone.

One of the problems with the ER’s here I’ve been to is that they are often overwhelmed by patients (even those with private cover) who use as first port of call during the hours when a GP is either unavailable or some kind of trauma, fainting or other drastic symptom manifests itself. If there were a mass casualty event the ER would be absolutely unable to cope with the numbers, I think.

Three children of my friends have either gone or finished medical school in Australia. One is from New Zealand and couldn’t get a ‘place’ there and so studied in Oz. There’s a number of ‘places’ in the education system and they’re allotted by selection. Curiously enough, two of those headed to medical school actually asked me to ‘coach’ them for the dreaded selectio interview. We met up in a cafe with their parents and we did a pretend interview. I had no idea if I did the right thing but they seemed happy and their parents were similarly pleased. About a month later, the doorbell rang and it was the family with a cake they had baked as a thank you gesture. It turned out both had gotten their ‘places’ and at least partly ascribed their success to a good interview result. I think they would have made it anyway.

I’ve been rambling on a bit. Just wanted to let people know what the ERs are like in Oz.