Guys, thanks for your answers. My query was made because my wife has recently had a full knee replacement. A month ago we travelled from Melbourne to the Gold Coast. Going through security at Tullamarine there were no problems. The wife informed the security bloke of her metal knee. He did a local scan on the area, was satisfied and off we went.
The problem came at Gold Coast airport when leaving to return to Melbourne. The scanner went off, wife informed the "security" bloke who then waved a female person over. Wife repeatedly told her of the operation but was ignored and after doing a brief wave over with the mobile scanner .... which did indeed show that there was metal in my wife's knee my wife was ordered to hold out her arms whilst the officer then proceeded to do a full, and what I consider to be an intimate, pat down of my wife in full view of the queue of passengers going through security.. At no time was she offered an investigation in a private area and in fact I thought that the female was completely indifferent to what was being said to her.
After this I found her somewhere to sit while I went off to buy a magazine. When I returned I found her so upset that she was in tears. I then went to find someone in authority to make a complaint about what had happened. The lady I spoke to was sympathetic and gave us the e mail address of her superior and on return to Melbourne my wife made a complaint about her treatment. A reply came over three weeks later, after a further e mail query from us, which basically called my wife a liar and accused her of not informing either of the pair security officers of her knee surgery and also said that she had been given a card to read which informed her of her right to an examination in private. I was present and neither of these things are true and another email has been sent saying so.
The answers given on this blog to my query confirm what I have always suspected about the so called security checks carried out at airports. Despite what we were told by the supervisor about 'protocols' for dealing with "passengers with special needs" as the government calls us these protocols are not always followed and if the security person you run across is having a bad day then you should be prepared to have one as well.
However I shall now be taking the next step and asking for an interview with my local Federal M.P.