(07-20-2022, 08:57 AM)ElwoodBlues1 date Wrote:In NSW now they have standalone ER clinics where you can pay to be seen straight away with full facilities.It's a bad situation, because they have no obligation to accept patients.
Think they are starting down here in Victoria too, guess where the best ER staff will be poached to work at. ?
I know a friend who had COVID recently, went to one of those clinics for express treatment and was turned away to the government run clinic. They then went to a local GP and was also turned away to the government run clinic. In the end they had to do a telehealth appointment to get to the next step. It was just a waste of the fee, because the next step is going to the government run clinic for a PCR test.
The clinics are using telehealth like a triage, and the private ER's are cherry-picking who's money they want to take!
It's all very Americanised, and I can see it causing some major problems in the public hospitals.
Interestingly, when I had my stent fitted I was warned things were heading this way by the public cardiology nurse. Initially I went to a private hospital with it's own cardiology unit and catheter lab as per my insurance policy, etc., but then got transferred to a public hospital as a private patient. The staff at the public hospital says it happens all the time, the less profitable cases and the cases that are likely to be problematic, get handballed to the public system. The cardiology nurse said you are better off going private in public from the get go, because if there are any unexpected problems that is where you end up anyway.
The UK model is much better than the American model, but the American model is what makes private investors wealthy, and politicians take the path of least resistance or cost. The politicians go where their bread will be buttered in the future!
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"

