medicare sydney

When babies are born in NSW they are given a blue book with all the info about check ups and immunisations required. I dont' think you can get a blue book if your bub is not born here. Your baby would be past the council-run mother's groups, so you would need to visit either your GP or the Early Childhood Clinic in your area for checkups. My hospital gave me the Sydney West area contact: 1800 222608. They should be able to tell you the number for your area. You must make an appointment (you used to be able to drop in without, but not anymore) Though it is really hard to get appointments with them! My baby's about to get their 6 month checkup and Im thinking of giving up on them after that. They say it is because they are locally run, and they don't have enough funding. I tried to book today, and they asked for my phone number, saying they would call back with an appointment time. From memory it took them a week to return my call last time. I've also heard that some chemists offer the same service, having a midwife/nurse onsite once a week...so perhaps ask at your local chemist too!

It has been 5 years since I lived in Sydney, so this information might be a bit outdated, but it is worth checking out. In Sydney, they also have [b'>Early Childhood Health Centres[/b'> just as as you described in your opening post. They are generally budgeted and run via the local councils I think and reside in premises that are easily accessed such as the local shopping centre or a community centre. Each Health Centre has community nurses working there. You can make an appointment to have your LO go through a thorough developmental check (ie checking that they are meeting all milestones, and making sure that you are coping ok, answering your questions etc). If there are issues, for example with breast feeding, sleeping routines, plagiocephaly or post natal depression, they will refer you on to appropriate professionals who are also free of charge. You can also pop in without an appointment to weigh your LO as they have special baby scales there and they often have a heap of reading material too. If you are new to the country or the area they can set you up with a mothers'group - at 6 weeks post birth, women who live in that vicinity are invited with their babies to go to a series of workshops that will teach them about various aspects of managing babies and help them connect with each other so they are not so isolated. These workshops usually run once a week (for 2 hours) for about 10 weeks'duration. They are a great way to make some special friends and build a supportive network of other families with children the same age. Don't be put off by the fact that you have a 3 month old. We had a lovely girl referred to our mother's group when she arrived in Sydney when all our kids were about 8 months old and stayed friendly with her until she again moved on. You will hopefully be welcomed with open arms. Now there doesn't seem to be a collective list of ECHC's on the net. So your best bet is to google "early child hood health centre" followed by "the name of your municipality". That should come up with a location and contact number. Failing that, call your local council chambers and their helpdesk should be able to point you in the right direction. If this doesn't make sense, feel free to come back and let us know the suburb where you are living and I can chase it up for you. Cheers

You can go to a gp (local doctor's office). Some of them bulk bill children which means they bill Medicare directly and you don't need to pay and claim while others charge you and you will have to go to Medicare to get a rebate (often only a portion of what you have paid). In Queensland, Qld Health operate child health clinics in some suburbs where you can request an appointment for check ups. I'm not sure whether NSW Health does the same but I would suggest that doing a search on NSW Health would be the best way to find out whether there is one near you and how to go about scheduling an appointment and whether there is any cost to you. Qld also does free immunisations for children and NSW may be the same but again you would be able to find out this information in the Yellow Pages or online.

Just call your nearby medical centres and ask if they bulk bill and accept medicare. If so, you either turn up or make appointment if you can and get your check up, which will be covered. Or if you have to pay upfront as you do in some cases, you do so and then go to nearest Medicare branch and present receipt and get your % of cash back for check up. Most major community medical centres will cover your check ups on medicare if you are a resident. <em>edited by Kylie2810 on 09/02/2011</em>