Health advice given by general practitioners for travellers from Australia

Objectives: \ud To investigate the prevalence of travel health advice and written documentation reported to be given by general practitioners to travellers from Australia.\ud \ud Design and setting: \ud A postal questionnaire was sent to general practitioners (GPs).\ud \ud Participants: \ud 433 GPs were randomly selected from the register of the Medical Directory of Australia from the areas of western Sydney and Townville.\ud \ud Results: \ud Two hundred and thirteen questionnaires (49.2%) were returned. Approximately two-thirds of the sample was male (133/207,64.3%) and one-third female (74/207,35.7%). The mean age of the GPs was 46.7 (SD±12.1) years. The GPs reportedly saw an average of 3.9 (SD±11.8) travellers per week. Most GPs (160/202,79.2%) reported that they spent between 5–25 min for pre-travel consultations. GPs generally reported giving advice to travellers on travel vaccines, malaria prophylaxis, personal protective measures against insect bites, geographic diseases, clothing, and sexually transmitted infections. The majority of GPs did not routinely give information on travel insurance, unsafe sex, barotrauma, in-flight exercise, jet lag or first aid knowledge. Most GPs reported not routinely giving written documentation in the form of written travel health advice, a doctor's letter or a travellers' vaccination record.\ud \ud Conclusions: \ud GPs report seeking core information needed for formulating travel health advice. GPs also provided travellers with health advice on most of the areas, which need to be covered in the pre-travel consultation. More GPs may wish to consider advising travellers about the importance of travel insurance and managing common maladies of travellers, such as motion sickness, barotrauma, and jet lag. With limited time in general practice to advise travellers, more GPs should consider providing written advice and documentation for travel, including a travellers' vaccination record

Preparedness of general practitioners in Australia for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games

The modern Olympic Games have been conducted only once every 4 years since 1900. They were held in Sydney, Australia, from September 15 to October 1, 2000, with approximately 35 competition venues, 5 villages, 100 training venues, a media center, and sponsor hospitality areas. Roughly 300 events for 28 sports involved 10,300 athletes from 200 countries, 5,100 team officials, 50,000 volunteers, 15,000 media, a worldwide audience of around 3.5 billion viewers and listeners, and up to several hundred thousand spectators at any one time. The Paralympic Games were also held in Sydney after the Olympic Games, from October 18 to October 29, 2000, with more than 4,000 athletes competing. A report detailing possible health advice and requirements for travelers attending the games has been published previously. Good systems of public and private health care operate in Australia, but health care is not free. Australian taxpayers contribute to a national public health system, Medicare, and even this does not necessarily cover all the costs of treatment. Section 3.5 of the Medicare Benefit Scheme refers to "Reciprocal Health Care Agreements," which exist for immediately necessary medical care ("emergency care"). Agreements with Australia cover New Zealand, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Malta, and Ireland. Benefits for Italy and Malta may only be available for the first 6 months of a stay. The Australian government covered much of the costs of medical treatment for most team members competing or involved in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, when the Games Village was open. This did not however extend to other visitors, and public hospitals in Australia are not generally geared and staffed to provide timely general practice services

Referral of travellers from Australia by general practitioners for travel health advice

Background:\ud General practitioners (GPs) may refer travellers to practice staff and to outside agencies to assist in the provision of travel health advice and preventive measures. In Australia, little is known about the referral patterns of travellers for travel health advice by GPs in the Australian context. This study was designed to investigate how frequently GPs' practice staff became involved in providing basic travel health advice and travel vaccination and to identify referral sources and how frequently GPs referred travellers to these sources for travel health advice.\ud \ud Method:\ud In 2000, 433 GPs from western Sydney and Townsville were randomly selected from the register of the Australian Medical Association's Medical Directory of Australia database and sent self-administered questionnaires. Two reminders were sent.\ud \ud Results:\ud Two hundred and thirteen questionnaires (43%) were returned. Approximately two thirds of the sample were male (133/207, 64.3%) and one third female (74/207, 35.7%). The mean age of the GPs was 46.7 (SD±12.1) years. About one tenth of GPs reported having a Yellow Fever Licence (11.3%, 23/203). The majority of GPs did not use their practice staff for giving travel health advice (60.7%, 122/201) or giving travel vaccinations (55.7%, 112/201). More than three quarters of GPs would never refer their patients for travel health advice to GPs with a special interest in travel medicine (76.4%, 152/199), specialists (76.8%, 152/198), or other agencies (77.8%, 63/81). Almost half of GPs stated that they would refer to travel clinics at least sometimes (46.6%, 95/204).\ud \ud Conclusions:\ud GPs do sometimes refer travellers to specialised practices for travel health advice, especially to travel clinics, but also to other agencies, possibly for specialised services, such as yellow fever vaccination. Further studies may be needed on capacity of general practice staff to contribute to the travel health consultation and also the reasons and the appropriateness of the referral to outside agencies, where this occurs. Practices may need to consider further training of their auxiliary health staff in travel medicine, so that they can become more involved in the provision of travel health advice and immunization, where possible

Resources utilized by general practitioners for advising travelers from Australia

A number of resources may be used in the provision of travel health advice and preventive measures. Information concerning the risks of a traveler’s destination and any specific requirements for travel health advice may be obtained from a variety of information resources. These resources may include various published national and international guidelines, other publications, audiovisual aids, and computerized databases.Regardless of the type of resource, it is important that the information provided is comprehensive, up-to-date, easy to access and use, and, preferably, professionally validated. Other resources used may also includes yellow fever site licensing, as well as practice staff. Referral may also be used in the practice of travel medicine. These resources should be used in conjunction with appropriate training and continuing education in travel medicine