Visa Medical Appointment

For your appointment you must bring:

·Your valid original passport. Driving license is not accepted.

·HAP ID (体检号) and your e-Medical Referral Letter.

·Prescription glasses or contact lenses.

·Any specialist’s reports about your medical condition.

At visa medical assessment

·A phone interpreter will be made available upon request.

·You will be required to change into a medical shirt provided for your visa medical assessment. We recommend that female applicants NOT wear a dress or clothing which is difficult to remove to the appointment.

·If you are having an x-ray, you will be asked to remove all necklaces and neck chains and tie long hair back. We request valuables not be brought to the assessment. Change rooms and lockers will be available to store your belongings, including your mobile phone which must be kept in a locker during your assessment.

Important information for your appointment

Blood Test

You are required to have a blood test, please eat and drink as normal before your appointment. There is no need to fast.

Arriving for your appointment

Please arrive on time for your appointment and allow approximately 2 hours for your assessment to be completed.

Pregnancy

If you are pregnant, please call our contact centre on 1300794919 as it may affect you being able to proceed with the assessment.

Menstruation (生理期)

If you have booked your appointment when menstruating, please go online to reschedule your appointment so it falls 4—6 days after you have finished menstruating.

For more information

Please visit our website www.bupamvs.com.au

Bupa Medical Visa Services Customer Service

Growing up in a small village in Ghana, Osei Boateng watched many of his family members and neighbors struggle to access basic health care. In many regions of the country, it can take hours to get to the nearest hospital. “My grandmother was a very big part of my life,” said Boateng. “It was very hard when we lost her, and it was due to something that could have been easily prevented. That is the painful part of it.”

Feeling an urgent call to help, Boateng decided he would make it his life’s mission to bring health care to remote communities in Ghana. He started his nonprofit, OKB Hope Foundation, and in 2021, he converted a van into a mobile doctor’s office called the Hope Health Van and started bringing health care directly to those in need. A few times a week, the mobile clinic and medical team travel long distances to remote communities in Ghana and provide routine medical care for free. On each trip, Boateng’s team consists of a nurse, a physician’s assistant, a doctor, and an operation assistant. In the van, they can run basic labs like bloodwork and urinalysis as well as prescribe and provide medications.

Since its launch, Boateng says the Hope Health Van has served more than 4,000 Ghanaians across more than 45 rural communities who otherwise don’t have easily accessible medical care.

Boateng has big plans for the future. He hopes to expand to provide more consistent and high-quality medical care not only to those living in remote areas of Ghana but in other countries as well. He has gone all in on his OKB Hope Foundation, recently quitting his job to dedicate his time to bringing health care to his home country. But for him, the sacrifices are well worth the reward.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is gaining global popularity. According to a government white paper, TCM has been introduced in 183 countries and regions around the world.

Westerners’ understanding of TCM, however, may be limited to acupuncture, cupping and massage(针灸，拔罐和按摩). For instance, the purple, injury-like marks left on U. S. swimmer Michael Phelps, back from cupping for the purpose of relaxing his muscles and reducing pain became the center of attention during the Rio Olympics in2016.

As a matter of fact, Chinese herbs play a more important role in getting rid of diseases and keeping the body in good condition in the TCM treatment system than physical treatment. It is therefore disheartening to know that while 103 World Health Organization member countries have given approval to the practice of acupuncture, not many recognize Chinese herbal medicine. TCM falls far behind Western medicine owing partly to the slow development of Chinese herbs.

Herbs are made into pills, powder and soup, and the kind of herbs used, their quality and quantity, and the processing of the ingredients(原材料)jointly determine the effectiveness of the prescription. Compared with Western medicine, which has standardized drug production processes and treatment methods, TCM lacks standardization, with the chemical composition and functions of its medicines being unclear and their effects being unstable. Fortunately, standardization has improved in recent decades, with an increasing number of factories producing patented TCM drugs.

Another factor that has prevented the development of TCM prescription drugs is the lack of creativity. While Western medicine-making companies come up with new products every year, TCM drug producers tend to make medicines according to prescriptions handed down from the past. Chinese chemist Tu Youyou’s winning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her research into malaria(疟疾)treatment may drive creativity to some extent in China’s TCM industry. However, the current state of affairs cannot be changed within a short time.