The most wonderful paediatrician

[rhyb]

Once you find a good one hang on forever. Ive had the same dr since I was 5 Hes great with the kids and I dont even want to imagine him retiring.

[onthefly]

Yeah, I thought that was standard too.

[Traveller]

I guess that is one of the biggest drawbacks of moving around so much, I have only ever had a GP for a few years max. Would be great to find a good one I could stick with.

[Kazbah]

I think they bulk bill for health car / concession card holders? Although having said that, in the clinic we go to, all the docs bar 1 bulk-bill kids.

[Traveller]

I have asked a couple of local people and have some GP's to phone tomorrow. Hopefully someone will have space for my wee family

[Mother Goose]

just to clarify on the bulkbilling thing. They don't HAVE to. But HIC (Health Insurance Commission) gives them a financial incentive to bulk bill under 16's and health care card holders. It isn't much though, less than $10. So whilst MOST GP's will bulk bill that demographic, not all do. If they don't, ask if they can bill medicare direct and you just pay the difference as many can now do this. HTH

MG

[pvroom]

I am putting this in here as it is not really a woo hoo as such, but I really wanted to share. Boytwin has been ill on and off since he had sepsis aged 10 days. He has had multiple chest infections, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, etc. Eventually we were told he was refluxing, then aspirating, causing frequent lung infections. He seemed to get every infection going, and after a hypospadias operation aged 15 months got a horrendous wound infection requiring really strong antibiotics.

When we came to Australia we hoped it was all over as he seemed to have grown out of the reflux, but he has been ill so much since we came back, with ear, eye and chest infections. He has grommets and as soon as one came out he got an infection. He has had so many prescriptions for abx and to top it all is now covered in red, raised eczema. My GP just treats each infection and skin irritation and sends us away, so I asked to be referred to a paediatrician.

The appointment was today. My ****wit of a GP had condensed boytwin's entire medical history (including all his volumes of notes brought from Scotland) into one sentence for his paediatrician - history of pneumonia. So I had to spend half an hour filling her in on everything from birth onwards. She was so lovely, and when I was halfway through she just looked at me and said "and why has nobody ever referred this child to an immunologist?" which had me rather embarrassingly burst into tears.

She has told me how to treat his eczema properly, and is referring him to an immunologist and for allergy testing. She is also chasing up the GP for all his notes and x-ray results but agrees with me that it sounds like something is up. I am so relieved. Back in 2 weeks.

Would you be able to share the name of this paediatrician? I am looking for one who knows a lot about allergies and/or reflux. Thanks!