UK citizen visiting Australia

[shellsb]

Hi everyone, I wonder if you can help. We live in the UK and my husband has CLL. He is having to travel to Australia in a weeks time and will be there for a couple of weeks. I am obviously worrying about him going and I was just wondering if anyone is on here from the Sydney NSW area and knows how he could access antivirals/monoclonal treatments if he were to come down with covid whilst there. Is there a process to go through. Obviously he has medical insurance (which does cover covid) so hope he could access something.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Shelley

[devonrr]

Obviously you need someone from Australia to answer this but a tip.

I was told by my GP when going to Australia for a holiday 2 years ago, to take my last clinic consultation letter with diagnosis and perhaps latest blood test results; just in case I needed to use the healthcare system.

Not just a tip for Australia but any foreign holiday. Just packed a copy for my trip to Holland!

[shellsb in reply to devonrr]

Thank you Devonrr - good tip!!!

[Ge77y]

Hi Shelly, I’m from NSW but currently in Victoria. I see a Haematologist in both states and both have said to contact them immediately if I test positive - 1 has even given me his mobile number. They are both specialists and you need a referral from a gp to see one. They need to apply to government Medicare to prescribe monoclonal treatment for citizens so must be contacted immediately. Would be worth asking your local haemo to document his history so it can happen quickly as must be given within 5 days of symptoms. Perhaps his current dr has a contact in Sydney that he could be referred to.

[shellsb in reply to Ge77y]

Thank you so much for responding. Would be great to get the name of your NSW haematologist if possible. I can then contact his local consultant here and ask him to write a letter to him if necessary. Thank you!!!

[Ge77y in reply to shellsb]

My consultant is Kim Cartright but she is based in Wollongong about an hour and half from Sydney. I’m not familiar with ones in Sydney. Hopefully someone else on here will know some Sydney based ones.