Tourist in Australia - Best options for severe migraine treatment?

February 20, 2019 4:40 PM

US traveler in South Melbourne suburb (Carnegie) has severe migraine. If it doesn't improve soon, is the emergency room at a public hospital the next step? Or some kind of private non-hospital clinic?

In the US we have "urgent care" clinics for issues that are not life - threatening but require immediate attention. Is there an Australian equivalent?

General info is helpful as well as recs for specific facilities. We have a car available.

The sufferer has US health insurance, possibly also travel insurance.

Please don't give me tips on diy migraine treatments. I'm only looking for clinics and facilities and advice on navigating them.

posted by under_petticoat_rule to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

Best answer: Most large GP practices will take walk-ins without an appointment, or if you call and say it's an emergency (migraine) they will fit you in right away. Look for something online that has a few different doctors, not a single doctor practice. My guess is this place would do it.

If you go to the emergency room, you are likely to have to wait a lot longer.

It's daytime, so the GP practice should be fine. If after hours, there are usually after hours clinics too.
posted by lollusc at 4:58 PM on February 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Charges for a brief GP visit are maybe around $75-100 AUD without Medicare. If you have a medication that has worked for you before, please suggest it; if you can bring in an empty box or a photo of your script, great. GP clinics should be able to give IM injections, maybe IV fluids at some depending on set up.
Emergency department is a back up option but I agree you are likely to be waiting longer and cost will be higher, maybe $600-800 estimate? You should also be able to provide your travel insurance details if you have it.
If it's after hours (nighttime), call up 13SICK and ask how much it would be for a home visit by a doctor - however then your treatment is limited to what the doctor has available in their bags and many don't carry stronger medications.
posted by quercus23 at 5:07 PM on February 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: The emergency department will treat you for a migraine, but they are busy and the triage process probably means an assessment of "in pain but not in danger" and will result in a very long wait, often many hours. I have been sick enough to have to lie on the floor of the emergency waiting room - things still took an awfully long time as I wasn't actually dying.

In this instance I would recommend a medical clinic as lollusc notes.

If this is an unusual episode that the sufferer is surprised/worried about then the emergency department will ramp things up and make sure there aren't worrisome neurological issues at play. I've been to emergency for precisely that reason as a teenager and they don't muck around - it is where I'd want to be in that instance.

US health insurance doesn't mean anything here, it's not the US. The emergency department could be ferociously expensive if they want tests and there isn't travel insurance covering them, this may be something to consider.
posted by deadwax at 5:39 PM on February 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Just a note on “US health insurance doesn’t mean anything here” — this may not be accurate, as it could mean something for the suffering policyholder! Some policies cover certain situations overseas (though for those that do, it’s almost always as out-of-network and with caveats). The traveler should check in with both any travel insurer and their health insurer. Good luck to them!
posted by LadyInWaiting at 5:57 PM on February 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Go the GP route. Even if you have to pay, the price points in Australia are still way cheaper than what American insurance would generally provide in the US. I speak as an American in Oz on this point.
posted by jadepearl at 6:42 PM on February 20, 2019 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I'm happy to report that things have improved from the time I asked the question, so it looks like we won't need to seek treatment.

I appreciate the advice and will remember it if anything comes up again.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 6:48 PM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also for the record "ferociously expensive" as deadwax says is still not the "ferociously expensive" that you might expect based on US healthcare costs. Like, it's not going to cost you half a million dollars and bankrupt you. Tests, scans, etc, will cost a few hundred dollars, max about $1000 each. An operation (not likely for migraine!) could be like $10,000 if you are unlucky. Obviously a lot more if you end up with a major ICU stay or something, but still not comparable to US costs.
posted by lollusc at 7:45 PM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also check your credit cards. Sometimes you have travel insurance included if you bought airline tickets on them. Call up/email your insurance when you're feeling better and find out if you are covered for international expenses anyway.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:20 PM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Aus GP notes on above ->
I would strongly recommend visiting a General Practice (ie primary care physician) over an after-hours service like 13 SICK as the home dr services are used to billing people under the national medical insurance scheme and might get a bit weird about the private billing of a non-citizen, and also they have no scope to order and follow up any investigation if that is something that is required (often not). The visit will likely cost <>
As a benchmark for cost, an outpatient MRI brain is about $450 privately in Australia and that is the absolute most expensive individual test for investigating a headache I can think of.
posted by chiquitita at 8:22 PM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]