Hi All,

I tried searching cause i know this has been done to death but of course the search function didn't work

Brianna is developing a rash around her mouth and throat at daycare and we need to see a paed. My Gp recommended Dr Michael Rosier or TCH paed outpatients clinic.

Anyone used either of these or any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also what does an appointment cost? I was hoping to get bulk billed but don't like my chances

I would highly recommend Dr Rosier. My DD sees him for kidney problems as a patient at his clinic at Calvary. Also when she is admitted to The Canberra Hospital she is always admitted under Dr Rosier. We find him a great Dr who is a very nice person as well.

I am not sure about bulk billing however I think a standard consult is approx $120 not 100% sure but I think an initial visit might be more.

I would suggest giving a call at his rooms at Calvary.

Good luck

I too would highly recommend Dr Rosier.

Initial consult I think was around $200, and app's after are $110 (unless they've gone up this year). You get about half back from Medicare.

Dr Rosier

Another recommendation for Dr Rosier - he saved Shea's life last October after the neurosurgeons missed diagnosing a blocked shunt (for hydrocephalus).

With the clinic - it is bulk billed but you see whoever is rostered on, and you may only get to see the registrar (has finished basic medicine but is still training for a speciality) not the consultant. If you need a follow-up it may not be with the same Dr.

Ok, guess i'll make an appointment with Dr Rosier. I called this morning and was told i would have to wait until june. Just hoping it does not become too serious befor then.

Thanks.

We see Dr Rosier as well .
I think he is about $220 for the initial consult and then $120 for other consults you only get about 50% of that back from Medicare but I think he is worth every cent .
I would ask if you can be put on a cancellation list as well

Can i ask why she isnt seeing an allergy specialist? I hope it is nothing, if not i hope it isnt serious, best of luck,
Han x

Another vote for Dr Rosier. I think he's awesome.

But when he saw Julia for the first time in September last year it was $300 but we got $200 of that back from Medicare. Did they tell you about costs when you made the appt?

Hannah- I asked about seeing a allergy specialist and was told no one in canberra works with children. I asked about Dr mullins who has been mentioned on here and was told he didn't work with kids I could go to sydney if i wanted to but the wait was months long.

I hope it is nothing as well or we can work out what it is and that is does not become serious

My cousin has allergies (adult) and the wait down here was so long he went back to Sydney to see someone. My DH has skin problems and was referred to a dermatologist, but the waits were so long most weren't even taking on new patients at all and he was told to go back to Sydney (but hasn't got around to it yet).

Sometimes it's worth the trip to Sydney to see a specialist than to wait on the long lists here in Canberra.

So is there a paediatric allergy specialist in canberra?

Will a paed be able to diagnose the problem?

Gee i have never had to deal with allergies before and am starting to feel a bit lost

Eh? Dr Mullins doesn't work with kids? My 2.5 year old has an appointment with him in two weeks - we've been waiting for 2 months. I better call tomorrow and double check! But I'm positive the receptionist asked for DS' date of birth.

Hiya,

my DS (3 yo) has allergy problems. We didnt realise until recently that this was affecting his hearing. The best option was to go to syndey which was actually quicker and cheaper than a general canberra paedeatrician. His name is Dr Morton from prince of wales childrens hosptial in randwick. He is the best child allergy specialist in sydney from what I hear. He was fantastic to speak with and definitely knew his stuff. Without going to see him, our DS would have had a permanent speech delay due to the long wait for a hearing test, and referals and appointments in canberra. We were referred the same day to a child ear nose throat specialist who fitted him in on the same day, then performed a hearing test and booked him in for surgery. The surgery happened on tuesday - 3 days before we could even get an appointment to a general pedeatrician in canberra. The appointment took 1 week for dr morton, he only sees patients on tuesdays and thursdays. I rang on a thursday and saw him the following tuesday.

I cannot recommend more strongly for you to seek advice from a specialist in sydney for anything child related. Your child could have permanent problems caused by delays in treatment.

I have had similar experiences with other kinds of medical problems requiring specialist attention.

You can just ring Dr morton's office, I can give you the number if you like. Then get a referral from your GP to take with you. Funnily enough, it was going to take longer to get to see my GP (to get a refferal) than it was to see Dr Morton.

~*~

Thanks everyone.

So does Dr Mullins see children? I think i'm better off going to a alergy specialist rather than a paed (but i have never had to go to a paed before).

Does anyone know if a paed will actually do anything? I am assuming it is allergy related but could be wrong.

I don't fancy going to sydney, especially if she needs ongoing care. I don't think it is life threatening, i just want to know what is causing the rash. It does not seem to bother her too much except for being a little itchy.

The wait time are fairly long in canberra but as Ladybug said you can get in if you really need to (and i don't think we are that urgent at this stage).

Ladybug, I think if you had had my experiences with child health care in Canberra you would not think it was over the top. Firstly, the population in Canberra doesn’t support specialist paediatricians. I don’t know of any and have never been referred to anything but a generalist paediatrician. Secondly, most paediatricians in Sydney are specialists, hence their client base is low, that is why you can get in so quickly. I have had to self source paediatric specialists myself, then get open referrals, as my GP doesn’t know all the specialists in Sydney for obvious reasons.

My experience was as follows (I have kept it as succinct as possible):
1.Referred for hearing test and generalist paediatrician
2.For the two places in Canberra that do child hearing tests for 3s and under, the wait was 10 weeks and 16 weeks respectively.
3.The wait for the referred paediatrician was 10 weeks
4.I was a little concerned about the wait, especially for the hearing test, and I couldn’t source any in Sydney either.
5.A friend of a friend knew someone who knew the wife of a child allergy specialist. I got the name and contacted them for an appointment. The wait was less than a week.
6.The specialist said he had a classic case of severe allergies and he will need operating on before winter or a permanent speech delay would be highly likely.
7.We were squeezed into a paediatric ear, nose throat specialist that day (due to the fact we were from Canberra and how likely any further delay was to cause problems) who also had hearing tests on site. His ears were completely blocked and he was booked in for surgery to remove his tonsils, adenoids and insert grommets, all in the hope of reducing his allergies and unblocking his ears. (BTW – the specialist said the tonsil removal often meant a reduction in skin problems and rashes – he has eczema too).

So the delay is not one I made up, I am a laid back parent at the best of times, but the lack of paediatric specialists and the length of time spent waiting for a delay made me quite dismayed at health services here. Also, for allergy related illnesses (which are typically hard to diagnose and treat) the best course of action is a paediatric specialist who deals with children daily. I recall back to when he was very little and had skin allergies, the paediatrician in Canberra was thinking about referring him to a dermatologist (not paediatric) in Canberra. I have been told recently the wait is astronomical for dermatologists here though.

So in Canberra, be prepared for very long waits, high fees and non specialist paediatric care – as the population is simply not big enough to support specialist paediatricians.
NB – I also had experiences when my son was 6 weeks old in a case of over treatment from a general paediatrician in Canberra. I took him to a paediatric specialist in Sydney (I found them on the web) who disagreed with the course of action, and stated no action was necessary and there was no problem.

I am due to have bubs this week and have just found out who the Paed will be, the one that Helen has had bad experiences with... I have PM'd her, however I see she has not been on EB since the end of last month... I was kind of hoping to get people's experiences prior to going into hospital so I have this up my sleeve because from the little I have read, the paed doesn't sound like a nice person.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tara

Hi

My DS stated with the rash too and it wasn't until he had a serious reaction to nuts that we did something about it. So avoid nuts at all costs until testing is done (sorry

after going to a pead in canberra (who was rude/ arrogant (calls mum-mum) i think others may know who i am talking about) who has ignorant when it came to allegies. Then going to Royal Price Alfred allergy clinic in Sydney for my DS (who has multiple allergies) who were fantastic, I definately recommed going to Sydney.

We actually go in faster to RPA than Canberra hospital for allegry testing because the RPA specialst didn't was us waiting that long so got us in on her holidays in Jan. Our Paed should've rushed us made the effort to get us in asap (because DS did have a serious reaction) in Canberra but didn't.

Since then we have seen Dr Carolyn Leerdam (paed) at Calvery Clinic and she is fantastic. Because i was already educated from our RPA visit, I could see that she knew all the allergy stuff. She was excellent at explaining things, I learnt things that i wasn't told at RPA, she took her time- there was no rush. She was very thorough, we went through everything, much more the than the non-interested pead we saw before.

We will continue our allergy journey with her, beacuse she is newish to canberra as far as Paeda go the wait wasn't long to see her.
She will then give us further refferals to the allergy testing unit in Canberra Hospital when we need it.

One thing i did love about our RPA visit is that we also saw a nutritionalist and she was excellent.

any way Good luck with it all!