General Practice

Appointments with your doctor

Standard appointments (10 minutes) are available with your doctor for a single issue or a few quick, simple issues.

Long appointments (20 minutes) are offered by your doctor for more complex issues, pap smears, health checks or problems related to mental health.

Although your doctors run on an appointment system, they will always make time for emergencies such as chest pain, shortness of breath sick babies or children, pregnancy related problems and bleeding. Reception staff need to be informed at the time of making appointments for such situations so that your doctor can be informed prior to your appointment with them.

After Hours Medical Care

After hours medical care is available through a medical deputising service for all patients. Although the after-hour service costs the patients very little in the way of annual fee, the practice pays a considerable annual subscription for this service to be provided to patients so we encourage patients to join this service.

Billing

Your doctors are now doing mixed billing for consultations.  Children under 16, Aged Pensioner Concession Card holders, Health Care Card and DVA card holders will continue to be bulk-billed Monday to Friday.  All other patients will incur a private fee from your doctor.  Your doctors charge full private fees for weekend consultations, with no bulk billing applicable on a Saturday.   Procedures performed by your doctor outside of normal consultation will also incur a private fee.

Repeat Scripts and Referrals

An appointment with your doctor is necessary for these services; however your doctor may issue a script without a visit if an attendance with your doctor occurred in the last month. This would be at the discretion of your doctor. If the request is for a name change on a referral this can be done as a phone request. Your doctor would charge a fee of $15 to cover administrative costs and your doctor will require 24 hour notice for provision of these.

Reminders / Recalls

The practice has a system of recalling patients for significant pathology results and reminders for regular health checks.

Test Results

All test results are given in person during a consultation and not over the phone. Receptionists can check to see if the test results are back but have no access to see the results. An appointment with your doctor is necessary for all test results.

Privacy Policy

We are committed to providing utmost care in keeping your personal information safe and confidential. Your records can only be accessed through written consent, and in compliance with the Privacy Policy Act (2000)

Transfer Of Records

Transfer of records to another doctor can be arranged after a written authority is received. Generally we send a health summary to the requesting doctor but should you wish to have your complete record sent there is an administrative fee of $20-$40 depending on the size of the file and postage cost. This fee is to cover administrative costs.

Complaint Process

We encourage feedback on your experience and we believe problems are best dealt with within the practice by emailing [email protected].

If you feel you are unable to approach any of the staff you may contact the Office of the Health Ombudsman at:

• Website: www.oho.qld.gov.au
• Phone: 13 36 46
• Facsimile:(07) 3319 6350
• Postal address:Office of the Health Ombudsman, PO Box 13281 George Street, Brisbane Qld 4003