Australian Health Care System

On Wednesday we visited Newcastle University and were ready to be transfer students. Their facilities and staff were amazing! After the tour three of my classmates and I gave a presentation on how to use Xenon gas to help diagnose pulmonary embolism. Here they use technegas for this. We will be visiting the producer of this tracer, Cyclopharm, on Thursday. During our visit here we were treated to homemade Vegemite rolls & laymington coconut cake while learning about the Australian Healthcare System. Here all Australians have Medicare with free or subsidized rates due to a 2% tax paid by all. This healthcare system began in February 1984, and doesn’t include dental. Australians can also have their own private plan along with Medicare. I think all of us in the presentation were a little shocked to learn how different our systems were cost wise. Their new imaging facility was a students dream come true. They had 5 x-ray rooms with body phantoms to practice on, a CT scanner, and radiation therapy machine.

Later that evening me and a classmate walked to a pizza restaurant. We were so exhausted we decided to take an Uber back to the hotel. Making small talk the driver learned we were students and we told him how interesting the healthcare system was. He said it was a wonderful system and told us about being in a car accident that hurt him badly and how all his care was paid for.