Appointments
Overview
Consultations are by appointment only. Appointments are 10 – 15 minutes in duration, however if you feel that you may need more time, please ask the receptionist when you are making your appointment. If more than one person from your family wishes to see the doctor at the same time, please ensure a separate appointment is made for each family member.
Emergencies will be dealt with immediately and may interfere with scheduled appointments.
NON CANCELLATION OF APPOINTMENTS
If you are unable to attend your appointment, please notify our reception staff at least 2 hours prior to your scheduled appointment time. Due to the high demand for an appointment, a non-attendance fee may be charged if you do not arrive for your appointment or if you cancel at short notice.
PRESCRIPTION REQUEST POLICY
Since it is often inappropriate to provide a prescription without consultation we request that you make an appointment for repeat prescriptions. Regular medication is provided in most circumstances for 6 months, after that you are required to come in for follow up.
For urgent repeat prescriptions a limited supply of your medication may be provided, depending on the doctor via a telephone request. Please allow 24 hours for these scripts to be printed. They will be available for pickup from reception. A $20 fee will apply and this is not covered by Medicare. Phone scripts will be charged at the discretion of your doctor and a follow up appointment with your Doctor will be required.
TELEPHONE CONSULTS
For patients requesting to speak directly to a doctor, phone calls cannot as a general rule be put through to doctors who are in the middle of a consultation. However, a message will be taken and the call returned by either the doctor or staff member as soon as possible. Please advise reception staff if the matter is urgent.
REFERRALS
Referrals to a specialist can only be given after assessment by your doctor. Referrals can only be made as a consequence of a consultation and cannot be back dated. Repeat referrals of ongoing specialist care may require consultation at the discretion of your doctor.
SICKNESS CERTIFICATES
Sickness certificates can only be issued as a result of a consultation. These cannot be legally back dated.
TEST RESULT POLICY
Your doctor will advise when they expect results to be arriving at the practice. Please phone the clinic for your results after 10am as the phones are very busy. X-ray follow ups are generally made at the time of appointment. It is your responsibility to follow up all test results; however should a result be abnormal we will contact you as soon as possible.
Some test results may require a follow-up-appointment. Please discuss this with your doctor.
RECALL AND REMINDER SERVICE
All women having a Cervical Screening Test are automatically put on a five year recall. If you wish other check-ups such as immunisations, diabetes, all blood tests etc they can be included on our recall system. However it is the patient’s responsibility to respond to SMS reminder or letters. If there is no response, the patient is taken off the recall system. Please inform us if you do not wish to be included in our recall system.
We do take part in the National screening programs, eg: Cervix Screening, Breast.
Screen, AIR Immunisation Register, National Bowel Cancer Screening Program and Insure.
SMS REMINDER SERVICE
You can now get a text message reminder a couple of days before your appointment. All you have to do is notify one of our friendly reception staff and they can arrange this for you. Please don’t rely solely on this, it is just a reminder. We have put this in place to hopefully eliminate the amount of missed appointments we get each day. It is important to notify us if you cannot attend an appointment as we could offer it to someone else.
We do take part in the National screening programs, eg: Cervix Screening, Breast.
Screen, AIR Immunisation Register, National Bowel Cancer Screening Program and Insure.
NEW PATIENTS
Unfortunately we have had to close our books to new patients. Please phone the surgery to updated information.