Where Australia differs

Medicine

• AF stroke risk uses CHA2DS2-VA, without the female sex point. A woman with AF and no other risk factor scores zero.
• Cardiovascular risk uses the Aus CVD Risk Calculator, which gives a 5-year risk, so the thresholds look lower than 10-year overseas tools: high is 10% or more.
• Asthma in adults and adolescents starts with as-needed low-dose budesonide-formoterol, not salbutamol alone.
• Warfarin reversal uses Beriplex, a four-factor concentrate, with vitamin K. Fresh frozen plasma is not added.
• Sepsis of unknown source is treated with gentamicin plus flucloxacillin, following Therapeutic Guidelines.
• Chlamydia is treated with doxycycline first, not azithromycin, outside pregnancy.
• Iron deficiency uses a ferritin cut-off of 30 µg/L, not 15.
• Rheumatic heart disease is still common in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. AF with rheumatic mitral stenosis means warfarin, not a NOAC.
• Distinctly Australian infections include Ross River virus, Q fever, melioidosis, scrub typhus, Hendra virus and Australian bat lyssavirus.
• C. difficile is treated first with oral vancomycin.

Surgery and emergencies

• Snake bite: pressure immobilisation, developed in Australia.
• Paracetamol overdose: a single-line nomogram starting at 150 mg/L at 4 hours.
• Burns: cool running water for 20 minutes, useful up to 3 hours after the burn; the modified Parkland formula uses 3 mL.
• Bluebottle stings: hot water at 45 degrees for 20 minutes.
• Bowel screening starts at 45, because bowel cancer is rising in younger Australians.
• No population AAA or skin cancer screening, despite world-leading skin cancer rates.
• Concussion in community sport: at least 21 days before competitive contact sport.
• Low back pain: no routine imaging, activity first, and no pregabalin for sciatica.

Women's health

• Cervical screening is an HPV test every 5 years from 25 to 74, with self-collection open to all.
• Gestational diabetes: every pregnant woman is tested at 24 to 28 weeks, with the higher 2025 thresholds.
• Pre-eclampsia prevention: aspirin 150 mg at night, before 16 weeks until 34 weeks.
• Anti-D is not given routinely for bleeding alone in the first trimester.
• Early medical abortion can be prescribed by any suitably qualified doctor or nurse practitioner.
• CTGs are sorted into four groups in the 2025 RANZCOG guideline, and routine admission CTGs are not recommended.

Child health

• Food allergy prevention: introduce peanut and egg early, by 12 months.
• Meningococcal B is funded for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies, with paracetamol given alongside.
• Rheumatic fever uses high-risk Jones criteria for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Pacific peoples.
• Young people can get their own Medicare card from 15, and headspace serves 12 to 25 year olds.
• Child protection: every state makes doctors mandatory reporters.

Mental health

• Better Access: up to 10 Medicare-funded individual sessions a calendar year with a mental health treatment plan.
• Eating disorder plans: up to 40 psychological and 20 dietetic sessions in 12 months.
• Mental health law is set by each state and territory, with its own forms and tribunal.
• Take Home Naloxone is free without a prescription.
• Alprazolam is a Schedule 8 medicine, and stimulants for ADHD need state authorisation.
• Crisis lines: 13YARN is answered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander supporters.

Population health, ethics and law

• Consent: Rogers v Whitaker (1992) set the standard of material risk, judged from the patient's point of view.
• Drivers: the patient must tell the licensing authority; doctors must report only in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
• Colleagues: reporting notifiable conduct to Ahpra is mandatory, with a higher threshold for treating practitioners.
• Voluntary assisted dying is lawful in all six states and the ACT, not the Northern Territory.
• Medicare pays 100% of the schedule fee for GP services; the 2026 PBS co-payment is $25.00, or $7.70 with a concession card.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health checks (MBS item 715) are yearly, and many screening programs start earlier for First Nations people.
• The Australian Centre for Disease Control became an independent agency on 1 January 2026.