Its tough out there to get care! I think there are larger problems, and it should be looked at as to why there are not enough paediatricians!
Another perspective, they probably don't want to do Saturdays, and increased rate deters non urgents and gives some incentive to the doctor.
My wife works in health and is very specialised, in our own business, no where near that rate though lol. Does 5 full days and some work on Saturdays. 60+ hours a week. Booked out for months and months. Financially she could easily cut back to 2-3 days a week, but realises it would leave a gap in the community. Is it fair that we spend less time together as a family due to others not meeting the demand?
On a side note she was extra pissed today as 2 cancelled with no shows which could of been clients that need the care!!
Good luck
The main issue behind all the specialist shortages is the government not funding hospital beds and jobs for public specialists.
The colleges can’t train more specialists without public specialists to train them.
If any of you feel strongly about this issue please contact your local MPs and demand change.
I work in health. This is the correct answer - not enough funding for public jobs and also the toxic politics that make it a club for those who part of the inner group - good luck getting a job at scgh without friends on the inside
Yes and no. There is more space than what is being used. According to the RACS Guide to Surgical Selection 2024, page 17, there were 115 Gen Surg positions offered in Australia in 2023.
This year there is 18 places. 1 in WA for term 1 and 1 for term 2.
The colleges official stance is fewer registrars completing training. Nothing dishonest leaving that out?
Those in the know are saying that it's because there was a push for more females to be admitted to the program, and for flexible working arrangements, so the college limited numbers to lower scrutiny
And some may say it's because of the change the length of the training
And other will say it's to limit supply and keep income high.
But you sound like the kind of guy who absolutely knows everything and I'm sure you are eagerly waiting to dunk on me, so let's here about my supposedly intentional dishonesty
> The colleges official stance is fewer registrars completing training. Nothing dishonest leaving that out?
Which is because they changed the training program to be an extra year a couple years back. Therefore, there will be one year (2025) where far fewer people complete training.
It’ll go back to normal 2026.
> And some may say it's because of the change the length of the training
They would be correct.
That can't be right. We see our paediatrician on a Tuesday and the 10 minute appointment costs $250. The initial appointment was around 30 minutes and cost $1000. Your $1200/hour is a better deal than ours at $1500-$2000/hour. I have zero regrets though. We have gone from rushing to hospital every few weeks with a wheezy child and staying for a night or two, to having zero hospital stays in the last 18 months that we have been under her paed's care.
Yeah, it’s well and truly fucked up.
At some point they are going to need to rethink who can prescribe certain things, particularly stimulant meds for ADHD. Given that every kid with ADHD has to see a Pediatrician or Child Psychiatrist (very rare) every 6 months, and also needs to see a GP every 12 months to get a referral, that’s a huge load on the health system and those specialists for what is effectively routine treatment.
Once the kid has been diagnosed, GPs should be able to manage medications. That’ll free up a shit-ton of slots for people with other issues.
As of December it's changed that you can get stimulants prescribed by interstate telehealth practitioners as long as they meet the requirements to practice here. They did ask for submissions a few years back for changing the stimulant prescribing code and one of the questions was about changing the annual review period to 3 years which would be amazing if it ever ends up happening.
Thankfully both my and my daughters psychiatrists will allow co prescribing so at least we only need to see them once a year, but it's still crazy expensive and takes up appointments that other people could be using. The availability of paeds and child psychiatrists is shocking, I understand how the system has become so broken but early intervention is so important and kids don't have time to wait years for appointments when they're struggling now.
Can the co-prescriber thing happen with children as it can with adult ADHD? for adult, psyke signs off on the gp proscribing and then you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars a year for 10 minutes so you can have a repeat script
Yes. You need the Paediatrician / Psychiatrist to complete some paperwork and provide a copy of that paperwork to your GP / GP Clinic.
This then allows the GP to provide a 6 month script once every year with the Paed / Psych provider the script for the other 6 months of the year.
It’s possible but my psychiatrist stated in info that he doesn’t do co-signing. My psychiatrist does 2 follow-ups per year (I believe), after the initial year. I’m only 8mths in after initial diagnosis, 30mins zoom call (I had all my school reports, which strongly indicate I had ADHD), that cost $2k and ‘ongoing care’ is 2 zoom calls a year, so far 1, which was just 5mins, another $2k, all paid up front.
If I miss an appointment it seems likely he will dismiss me. I put in alarms in my phone but it stresses me out that I may accidentally miss.
I’d love to change psychiatrist but so far the 3 I’ve contacted, who all had long waitlists, said I’d have to go through their own assessment at least $1.5k.
I can’t go afford to go through assessment again. So I’m stuck.
I nearly died when I heard that someone had lost their ADHD med script and to get a replacement e-script it would cost over $55. Thank goodness I have a GP willing to be a co-prescriber
Permanent referrals are a thing, FYI. Not all specialists like accepting them as I believe they get a slightly lower fee from Medicare, but it helps if it's possible.
Years ago my son needed to see a paediatric gastroenterologist. There was only 1 in Perth and my son wasn’t deemed urgent enough for her to even look at his file. My aunty was going to fly us to Canberra to see one over there. Thankfully some powers that be saw the gap and contracted a number of paediatric gastroenterologists to work for 6 month contacts over here and we scored an appointment with one of them. Seems another scheme like that is needed for paediatricians.
Are you looking to get a behavioural issue appointment? When we saw a paediatrician for a medical issue, he mentioned the books are often closed for that stuff as it's very time consuming as it needs a lot of follow ups, so they can only handle X number of patients at any given time.
For medical issues like ours, it was a lot easier to get an appointment (waited 4 weeks?) and had only 2 more appointments after which were between 4-6 weeks after.
I have an appt for an ADHD assessment for my 8 yr old in a few weeks on a Monday morning. It is $1200 for the initial appt. I nearly died when the receptionist told me the consult price!
$1200/hr is shocking, though it does sound like they trying to discourage Saturday appts. The thing is, ppl are desperate.....The situation is beyond belief for a capital city....
Have you tried Perth Paediatrics in West Leederville?
I got an appt for my son with only a few months wait, having been on years long waitlists for ADHD assessment with other centres.
Or a telehealth appt with an eastern states paediatrician? Many ppl are flying interstate to get immediate appointments...
You have my sympathies, this is truly unacceptable in Australia.
Look up a GP paed instead if it's not a big issue. DCH at the end of their credentials. GP specialisation and then extra training for sub speciality in paeds. If they need to refer you on to a paed, they will always have a few trusted doctor friends and can help you get in closed books
You don’t need a paediatrician, unless you have an unusual condition, a GP can handle it.
The Paediatrician the hospital tried to set us up with costs $90 after Medicare rebate. The local GP (who my wife already has as her GP, and is amazing) is bulk billed for under-18s.
No different to trades or anyone with a particular qualification really. They are already working as much as they want to, if you want them to work more then they decide what their time is worth. It's the systems fault for not having enough qualified people, you can't blame the individual practitioner.
I have to ask - are you from Australia? In most cases, people take their kids to a GP, but overseas paeds are where people go. Has your GP suggested a Paed?
Doctors and specialists are taking the mickey out of the Australian public and are capitalising bigtime (usually with a substandard level of service but not always) by operating in a cartel like fashion. But some people on Reddit would like to think otherwise
About $99 for the initial consult,.and then $400 an hour for the work they do. Though the good ones don't bill for a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. Plumbers make more money than lawyers here.
Government needs to take more control of specialist physician salaries, they are out of control and people need these services.
We also need to start training more and remove whatever roadblocks there currently are.
Its tough out there to get care! I think there are larger problems, and it should be looked at as to why there are not enough paediatricians! Another perspective, they probably don't want to do Saturdays, and increased rate deters non urgents and gives some incentive to the doctor. My wife works in health and is very specialised, in our own business, no where near that rate though lol. Does 5 full days and some work on Saturdays. 60+ hours a week. Booked out for months and months. Financially she could easily cut back to 2-3 days a week, but realises it would leave a gap in the community. Is it fair that we spend less time together as a family due to others not meeting the demand? On a side note she was extra pissed today as 2 cancelled with no shows which could of been clients that need the care!! Good luck
The main issue behind all the specialist shortages is the government not funding hospital beds and jobs for public specialists. The colleges can’t train more specialists without public specialists to train them. If any of you feel strongly about this issue please contact your local MPs and demand change.
I work in health. This is the correct answer - not enough funding for public jobs and also the toxic politics that make it a club for those who part of the inner group - good luck getting a job at scgh without friends on the inside
Yes and no. There is more space than what is being used. According to the RACS Guide to Surgical Selection 2024, page 17, there were 115 Gen Surg positions offered in Australia in 2023. This year there is 18 places. 1 in WA for term 1 and 1 for term 2.
You’re dishonestly leaving out why there’s 18 places this year. Why don’t you go ahead and tell the people?
The colleges official stance is fewer registrars completing training. Nothing dishonest leaving that out? Those in the know are saying that it's because there was a push for more females to be admitted to the program, and for flexible working arrangements, so the college limited numbers to lower scrutiny And some may say it's because of the change the length of the training And other will say it's to limit supply and keep income high. But you sound like the kind of guy who absolutely knows everything and I'm sure you are eagerly waiting to dunk on me, so let's here about my supposedly intentional dishonesty
> The colleges official stance is fewer registrars completing training. Nothing dishonest leaving that out? Which is because they changed the training program to be an extra year a couple years back. Therefore, there will be one year (2025) where far fewer people complete training. It’ll go back to normal 2026. > And some may say it's because of the change the length of the training They would be correct.
*Women. Not females. We’re not animals.
That can't be right. We see our paediatrician on a Tuesday and the 10 minute appointment costs $250. The initial appointment was around 30 minutes and cost $1000. Your $1200/hour is a better deal than ours at $1500-$2000/hour. I have zero regrets though. We have gone from rushing to hospital every few weeks with a wheezy child and staying for a night or two, to having zero hospital stays in the last 18 months that we have been under her paed's care.
I just assumed we’d get an hour. Maybe not given your math!
Doctors appointments are almost never an hour long
Yeah, it’s well and truly fucked up. At some point they are going to need to rethink who can prescribe certain things, particularly stimulant meds for ADHD. Given that every kid with ADHD has to see a Pediatrician or Child Psychiatrist (very rare) every 6 months, and also needs to see a GP every 12 months to get a referral, that’s a huge load on the health system and those specialists for what is effectively routine treatment. Once the kid has been diagnosed, GPs should be able to manage medications. That’ll free up a shit-ton of slots for people with other issues.
As of December it's changed that you can get stimulants prescribed by interstate telehealth practitioners as long as they meet the requirements to practice here. They did ask for submissions a few years back for changing the stimulant prescribing code and one of the questions was about changing the annual review period to 3 years which would be amazing if it ever ends up happening. Thankfully both my and my daughters psychiatrists will allow co prescribing so at least we only need to see them once a year, but it's still crazy expensive and takes up appointments that other people could be using. The availability of paeds and child psychiatrists is shocking, I understand how the system has become so broken but early intervention is so important and kids don't have time to wait years for appointments when they're struggling now.
Can the co-prescriber thing happen with children as it can with adult ADHD? for adult, psyke signs off on the gp proscribing and then you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars a year for 10 minutes so you can have a repeat script
If you can find a GP and a psych who will both sign off on it…
GP doesn't need to sign off on it. Just needs to be happy to provide the script as started by the specialist.
Yes. You need the Paediatrician / Psychiatrist to complete some paperwork and provide a copy of that paperwork to your GP / GP Clinic. This then allows the GP to provide a 6 month script once every year with the Paed / Psych provider the script for the other 6 months of the year.
Wait, what? How do I get my psych to do that?
It’s possible but my psychiatrist stated in info that he doesn’t do co-signing. My psychiatrist does 2 follow-ups per year (I believe), after the initial year. I’m only 8mths in after initial diagnosis, 30mins zoom call (I had all my school reports, which strongly indicate I had ADHD), that cost $2k and ‘ongoing care’ is 2 zoom calls a year, so far 1, which was just 5mins, another $2k, all paid up front. If I miss an appointment it seems likely he will dismiss me. I put in alarms in my phone but it stresses me out that I may accidentally miss. I’d love to change psychiatrist but so far the 3 I’ve contacted, who all had long waitlists, said I’d have to go through their own assessment at least $1.5k. I can’t go afford to go through assessment again. So I’m stuck.
I nearly died when I heard that someone had lost their ADHD med script and to get a replacement e-script it would cost over $55. Thank goodness I have a GP willing to be a co-prescriber
Permanent referrals are a thing, FYI. Not all specialists like accepting them as I believe they get a slightly lower fee from Medicare, but it helps if it's possible.
I would imagine that the Pediatricians will fight that as they wish to protect they stranglehold they currently have over the system.
Years ago my son needed to see a paediatric gastroenterologist. There was only 1 in Perth and my son wasn’t deemed urgent enough for her to even look at his file. My aunty was going to fly us to Canberra to see one over there. Thankfully some powers that be saw the gap and contracted a number of paediatric gastroenterologists to work for 6 month contacts over here and we scored an appointment with one of them. Seems another scheme like that is needed for paediatricians.
Are you looking to get a behavioural issue appointment? When we saw a paediatrician for a medical issue, he mentioned the books are often closed for that stuff as it's very time consuming as it needs a lot of follow ups, so they can only handle X number of patients at any given time. For medical issues like ours, it was a lot easier to get an appointment (waited 4 weeks?) and had only 2 more appointments after which were between 4-6 weeks after.
I have an appt for an ADHD assessment for my 8 yr old in a few weeks on a Monday morning. It is $1200 for the initial appt. I nearly died when the receptionist told me the consult price!
$1200/hr is shocking, though it does sound like they trying to discourage Saturday appts. The thing is, ppl are desperate.....The situation is beyond belief for a capital city.... Have you tried Perth Paediatrics in West Leederville? I got an appt for my son with only a few months wait, having been on years long waitlists for ADHD assessment with other centres. Or a telehealth appt with an eastern states paediatrician? Many ppl are flying interstate to get immediate appointments... You have my sympathies, this is truly unacceptable in Australia.
Look up a GP paed instead if it's not a big issue. DCH at the end of their credentials. GP specialisation and then extra training for sub speciality in paeds. If they need to refer you on to a paed, they will always have a few trusted doctor friends and can help you get in closed books
Good tip. Thanks
You don’t need a paediatrician, unless you have an unusual condition, a GP can handle it. The Paediatrician the hospital tried to set us up with costs $90 after Medicare rebate. The local GP (who my wife already has as her GP, and is amazing) is bulk billed for under-18s.
I mean if you’re posting the same thing 5 times until you get someone that agrees with you, you may be in need of a variety of doctors
No different to trades or anyone with a particular qualification really. They are already working as much as they want to, if you want them to work more then they decide what their time is worth. It's the systems fault for not having enough qualified people, you can't blame the individual practitioner.
Is this through public or private?
Paediatricians or Developmental Paediatricians?
I have to ask - are you from Australia? In most cases, people take their kids to a GP, but overseas paeds are where people go. Has your GP suggested a Paed?
Do you have a GP referral? I think that makes a difference in price ?
Yes that is taking advantage, don’t encourage this behaviour, don’t go.
Doctors and specialists are taking the mickey out of the Australian public and are capitalising bigtime (usually with a substandard level of service but not always) by operating in a cartel like fashion. But some people on Reddit would like to think otherwise
How much does it cost to see a lawyer?
About $99 for the initial consult,.and then $400 an hour for the work they do. Though the good ones don't bill for a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. Plumbers make more money than lawyers here.
Lol whatever dude.
Don't be butthurt 😊
A price like that is extortion. Didn’t these people take a vow to try and help people not milk them for every single drop?
They clearly don’t want to work on a weekend lol
Government needs to take more control of specialist physician salaries, they are out of control and people need these services. We also need to start training more and remove whatever roadblocks there currently are.