Visas & Advice Detail
Australian medicals 101
Dr Charlie Easmon of Number One Health explains some key points of the medical exam required as part of the Australian immigration system
The panel doctor's role is to provide accurate and independent medical information to assist the local government in assessing the risk of taking you into their country.
They see two main health risks:
1. Are you infected with TB or HIV or in some case syphilis, Hepatitis B and/or C?
2. Are you going to cost them lots of money.?
We, the doctors, take your history and review it. If we feel more information is needed we ill write to your GP or specialists. We examine you to identify any obvious health problems. If you are overweight we may have to do additional tests or refer you for a fitness assessment. We test your urine for signs of infection or kidney damage,. We take your blood for the infectious disease that the country is interested in. The chest X-ray is to exclude the possibility of you suffering from TB.
In some cases it is clear that we will need a specialist report. If you can afford it we can get appointments and reports back in the private sector within days, if you cannot then you just have to wait the gold old NHS!
We have had examples of people not telling the truth and one woman tried to hide an obvious breast cancer. If you wear a scarf we wonder if you have a thyroid problem hidden underneath it. We can sometimes be fooled by children or adults who are educationally subnormal if the parents answer all the questions and so we often try to talk to the child direct and assess if they are normal and have met all their development milestones.
I and my team now have over 20 years experience if we add all our years end to end (I have been providing visa medicals for seven years). It is an interesting and rewarding job that allows us to see people at a crossroads in their lives.
The best approach is 1) be honest 2) be well-prepared (ie bring any medical reports with you and 3) be kind!
For more information:
Number One Health
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