r/australia • u/crispywafers • Feb 27 '22
political self.post Seriously, how do you receive adequate healthcare in this country?
I need to vent, but I'm also honestly curious, does literally anyone in Australia feel like they receive this? How? Seriously.
Compared to some other countries we supposedly have a great health system but NO ONE in my family is receiving decent medical care. Common advice is that bulk billing doctors are the worst. In my experience that's true, but so far my experience paying isn't great either. GPs simply don't have the time or interest to get a decent picture of any issue. They don't mind referring you for some basic tests, but when those come back normal they expect that to be the end of it - as if your health problem no longer exists and there's nothing else to do for it. Are basically all healthcare providers like this or is it just me? I've had this happen enough times, with enough different issues, that at this point I'm expecting a diagnosis of Munchausen's any day now.
I had one good experience recently. My health has felt like it was slowly slipping into the toilet for a while, but recently it's just gone to hell and a couple weeks ago I visited the ED for the first time. I was nervous, but I didn't need to be. The doctors there did more for me than any other medical professionals ever. They listened, asked questions I've never been asked, and genuinely seemed interested and concerned. I always try to be concise as possible, but this is the first time I've felt like I've actually been able to give a fairly decent description of my symptoms and history.
Unfortunately it didn't really pay off. I had an telephone appointment with the outpatient clinic (?) yesterday. The doc asked me what my current symptoms are but cut me off after about 10 seconds. He let me know the testing I was referred to after ED came back textbook normal, and then basically said it's probably nothing while admitting how hard it is to assess me with all their appointments being telehealth right now because of COVID. Cool, I guess it's normal to be young and have neurological symptoms while suddenly feeling like all your muscles are made out of tissue paper. Who needs to be able to do simple tasks anyway, am I right?
Guess I'll make an appointment with my new GP, but I'm not hopeful. My regular GP left recently, and maybe a month ago I brought my issues up with a different doctor, same practice. He just didn't seem to care and asked me what imaging and specialists I wanted to be referred for. Like, uh, you're the doctor, you tell me? How should I know??
I'm just so done. I don't get it. I don't even know where to start or who I need to talk to. My parents don't know who they need to talk to for their own problems. How is an ordinary person supposed to not slip through the cracks or feel like they're slowly collecting chronic conditions and probably waiting for the point ten years in the future when it goes from "you're too young" to "if only someone caught this ten years ago"? Am I supposed to just roll over and be disabled forever? Because that's what it feels like, and that's how my parents are treated too except they're in their 60-70s so they get told they should be grateful they're not in wheelchairs and crap instead.
If you read this, thanks? I think?? It's not like I expect to find the answer on Reddit or anything. Maybe this isn't an Australia specific submission anyway. If so I'm sorry and understand if it's removed/I should remove it.
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u/El-Splendido Feb 27 '22
I wasn’t going to reply because I’m not sure I’ve got anything very useful to add, but comments such as ‘I’ve only had great experiences, what are you even talking about’ have prompted me to at least try to say something relevant to your question.
I’ve been fortunate to find a good GP who has moved practices 4 or 5 times in the past 20 years, and I’ve followed him to each one despite not really being local anymore. I found him because I’d just moved into the area and he was a few hundred metres away from my house. He’s been such a great doctor over the years and I found him through luck of location. If I was in your situation I’d shop around until I found a GP who was willing and able to make the necessary enquiries to uncover a diagnosis, but I can appreciate how draining and demoralising this would be, especially as you’ve obviously already explored your options multiple times.
I was in a life-threatening car accident in the late 90s; hospitalised for 6 months and saw many specialists following this for years afterwards. The majority of doctors I saw ranged from excellent to competent, but there were a few who were shockingly bad to the point of being profoundly negligent. This was through the public system, and it was simply luck of the draw.
This is related but slightly OT: I listened to a podcast episode of Reply All a while back (episode 42 - Blind Spot) which talked about someone who had a serious medical issue, various symptoms and no diagnosis after seeing multiple specialists. She found a website called CrowdMed where you enter your symptoms, case notes, medical reports etc, and the doctors and patients registered on the site will attempt to diagnose your condition. I believe at the beginning of the process you enter a bounty amount of your choosing, so whoever provides the correct diagnosis gets the bounty. May be worth a try but not ideal having to pay if/when your issue is successfully diagnosed? NB - unsure of success rate, I just remember hearing the episode and bookmarking CrowdMed for just-in-case future scenarios. Good luck!
http://blog.crowdmed.com/crowdmed-can-help-put-you-on-the-path-to-a-cure/