Travel Doctor
The number of people traveling overseas has continued to rise in the past 10 years.
Whether it is for business or for pleasure, your travel will be more enjoyable in good health.
Travel to international destinations are accompanied by the risk of various problems that can affect your health, even "safe" travel to developed parts of the world is not safe without some potential for health issues.
Travel to the less-developed, tropical parts of the world often present a range of serious hazards that need to be understood and managed properly to avoid illness.
This is especially for children, pregnant women, seniors, older travellers, and those who are immunocompromised due to various reasons.
Nobody is immune to all travellers’ health problems.
We are GPs who have special interest in travel health advice and medical services for those travelling overseas to address the range of health risks a traveller may face, with the aim of assisting travellers to better understand the measures necessary to prevent illness and injury during international travel.
Our staff is passionate, enthusiastic and experienced in providing travel health services and will adapt your travel health plan to your personal needs and itinerary and provide a travel health consultation to make your preparations as smooth as possible.
Let us help make your holiday memories a happy and memorable one!
Travel Health
The risk of becoming ill or injured during international travel depends on many factors - the region of the world visited, traveller’s age and health status, length of the trip and activities involved during travel.
Therefore, our goal in your travel is skilfully managing the risk to minimise the illness.
International travel takes on many forms;
- Tourism
- Business
- Study abroad
- Research
- Visiting friends and relatives
- Ecotourism
- Adventure
- Medical tourism
- Mission work and
- Responding to international disasters.
At Travel Doctor, we want your visit to be a positive, pleasant experience.
Individual consultations are required in order to provide precise advice for all individuals. It is necessary for us to work out exactly what you need for your trip. That will depend on where you are travelling to, style of accommodation, planned activities during the trip, your past medical history, allergies, and a range of other factors that are best discussed during your consultation.
Please bring:
- Past vaccination records - international vaccination record book, written vaccination record from your regular GP
- Details of your trip itinerary
- Names of any medications you take regularly or intermittently
You will be issued with an international vaccination record book during your consultation with us.
You may contact Dale Medical Centre on 08 6118 4570 to book an appointment.
It will be really helpful that if you could fill out and submit the pre-consultation questionnaire to our reception. You are welcome to e-mail same to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Please download Travellers Information Sheet from this link and bring it filled when you attend the clinic.
You should make an appointment ideally between 6-8 weeks prior to departure. This allows sufficient time for a course of vaccines to be administered if required. If you leave your vaccinations until less than 10 days prior to travel, it is possible that you may not be protected for some part of your journey.
The initial consultation with the doctor sometimes may be a complex one depending on your medical conditions and your trip itinerary which might take at least 20- 30 minutes if you are a new patient to the practice.
Initial consultation will cost you $120 a part of which may claim from Medicare a rebate amount for that consultation type depending on whether you have health care card / pension card / common wealth card / DVA Gold card.
Time of the consultation will be variable depending on various factors and we can arrange subsequent consultations under Medicare bulk billed. For an example vaccination consultation will be bulk billed.
In addition, you will be required to pay for the some vaccines, some of medications and other products that you purchase for which no rebate is available on these items. However, some private health extras will cover you for travel vaccinations and you may check with your insurer for more information.
Medicare rebates are not payable for travel that is undertaken for work-related purposes nor medical assessments of fitness to travel.
The Haynes Travel Doctor accepts all major credit cards.
Pre-Travel Consultation
The pre-travel medical encounter usually consists of 3 components.
To perform an individual risk assessment on the health background of the traveller.
| Health Background | |
| Past Medical History |
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| Special Conditions |
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| Immunization History |
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| Prior Travel Experience |
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| Trip Details | |
| Itinerary |
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| Timing |
|
| Reason for Travel |
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| Travel Style |
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| Special Activities |
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Routine vaccinations according to the national immunisation schedule and depending on your previous vaccination history, you might need;
- Flu vaccine ( depending on the time of the year- Medicare funded for special groups only)
- Measles Mumps and rubella
- Chicken pox
- Pneumococcal vaccine ( Medicare funded over 65 year-old)
- Diphtheria tetanus and pertussis ( Medicare funded)
- Shingles vaccine( Medicare funded for 70 - 79 year olds )
- hepatitis B
Recommended Vaccines
- Depend on your travel destination/s.
- Meningococcal vaccine ( Medicare funded for special groups)
- Cholera (oral)
- Hepatitis A, B
- Japanese Encephalitis
- Polio
- Rabies (pre-exposure)
- Typhoid
- Yellow Fever
Malaria
Malaria is a serious and potentially life-threatening infection spread through a bite of a mosquito but preventable by avoiding mosquito bites and taking certain medications.
Check with you doctor that your itinerary consists of countries where malaria is endemic.
Depending on the risk of malaria in the area you are travelling to, you may be advised to take anti-malaria medication which need to be taken before, during and after your visit.
Be familiar with all the insect bite avoidance measures available, and practise them.
Seek medical attention promptly if a malaria infection is suspected, despite taking anti-malaria medication.
Some diseases cannot be prevented through vaccination hence it is essential to be aware of the preventative measures available.
For more information on the following, you may see Haynes travel doctor;
- Travellers' Diarrhoea
- STIs
- Dengue fever
- Chikungunya
- Schistosomiasis
- Leishmaniasis
- Leptospirosis
- Zika virus
- Hepatitis E
Other conditions associated with travel;
- High altitude
- Jet lag
- Motion sickness
- Hazards with animals
- Sun exposure
- Contaminated food and water
Post Travel Consultation (Medicare Bulk Billed)
Travel Doctor is also specialised in managing post-travel medical problems.
If you are unwell on returning from overseas travel with diarrhoea, fever, rashes, animal bites, unprotected sex, we have the experience to assist you.
