Struggling to afford specialist doctors’ fees? See if your GP can refer you to one of Australia’s free public hospital clinics

Free healthcare can depend on where a patient lives and whether there’s a clinic nearby that treats the condition. Photograph: The Guardian

Madeleine’s* GP wanted to refer her to a urologist to review a large cyst on one of her kidneys, along with kidney stones. The out-of-pocket fee would have been $290.

“I just said, no – not on top of everything else.”