Immigration medical examination

Yesterday I was at an official medical examination, which is a prerequisite for obtaining a permanent visa. Possible other previous examinations will not be accepted.

Expensive health check

In addition to the general medical examination (AUD 222.50), it includes a chest X-ray (AUD 109.00) and an HIV blood test (AUD 47.90). Before you come to the examination date, you have to answer various health questions online. Then you get a so-called “referral letter”. You then have to enter data from this referral letter online to make an appointment on the website of “Bupa Medical Visa Services”. Then you are asked to make an appointment by phone (as usual in Australia) directly with the desired clinic. On the phone then again the same data were requested, which I had already given on the Internet …

When I arrived at the appointment, I was handed a form in which I had to give a third time the same data (name, address, phone number, etc.). In addition, I was photographed for “identity reasons”. After 25 minutes the necessary bureaucratic work was done by the clerk, and I was allowed to pay the fee of AUD 379.40. For that price I expected a substantial medical examination.

Not much of a thorough medical examination for the money

After another waiting time of about 20 minutes, a medical assistant or nurse guided me in a small room. There my height and weight were measured, my vision tested with a chart hanging at a wall, urine sample taken (which served the only purpose to determine if I would take drugs) and blood pressure measured. The whole process took barely more than 8 minutes. Then another assistant in another room took blood from me (for the HIV test and only for that) before I was sent back to the waiting room.

When I was asked in to the actual doctor after a short time, I thought that the thorough examination would commence. But the doctor needed barely more than 5 minutes to measure the reflexes (hitting the kneecaps with the hammer), listening to the respiratory tract through the shirt and looking into the ears, eyes and throat. He asked me if I was alright, if I had any specific medical background and if I was taking medication. Finished.

Then waiting again until I was taken to an X-ray room for the chest X-ray. Again, I did not have to take off anything and it took only 5 minutes.

All done within an hour for AUD 379.40 and the results I will not get, only the immigration authority….