Practice Information - Doctors

 

Appointments

Patients are seen by appointment only and as integrative medicine requires longer than usual medical consultations, it is advised that follow up appointments are made well in advance. At times our doctors can be booked up to a month or more in advance.

We also recommend that you have a local general practitioner who can provide you with acute care or manage any general medical problems.  In these situations we may not be able to provide you with an urgent appointment due to the high demand for our services.  We do keep a waiting list of people needing urgent appointments and if we receive a cancellation, we fill the vacancy from this waiting list according to urgency.

16 years old and over

Our practitioners or receptionists are unable to GIVE OUT INFORMATION TO A PARENT, for a child/young person 16 years and older, this also includes appointment times, cancellations and reschedules. If the child/young person would like the parent to have authority then they can give that authority over the phone or in writing. This can be a once of or continuing, however that can be withdrawn at any time by the patient.

What to bring to your first appointment

If you are able it is useful to bring the following to your first consultation:

  1. A brief outline of your medical history

  2. The results of any investigations or specialist consultations relevant to your current health problem.

  3. A list of any medications and nutritional supplements you are taking (it is actually helpful if you bring the bottles with you so we can check the actual amounts of the various nutrients in the supplements you are taking, as it is impossible to keep track of all the different formulations available).

  4. A 3 day example of your normal diet and exercise routines

  5. If you have been very ill please arrange for your partner or primary care-giver to attend with you for these sessions. It is important that they understand the program being developed for you and the rationale behind it so they can assist you in your efforts to reclaim your health.

Contacting the doctor

At times you may need to contact your practitioner to clarify an important issue that cannot wait until your next review. Please call reception on 8332 4100 whereby a message will be taken and passed onto your practitioner. Depending on the medical priority of your issue, you should expect to hear back from your doctor within 24-48 hours. For non-urgent issues, many practitioners have allocated time once a week to attend to these issues. Please do not make further phone calls regarding the same issue.  Your doctor will contact you when they are able to.

Fees

This is a private billing practice and fees are payable at the time of consultation. Please pay by cash, cheque, Visa, or EFTPOS. We offer Medicare online claiming to enable you to receive your rebate the following business day into your bank account. You must have your bank account details registered with Medicare for this to happen.

We do offer a concession rate if you have a Government Pension Card, Health Care Card or DVA Card (not Seniors Card). These cards will need to be current and will need to be sighted by reception at the time of paying your consult in order for us to charge the reduced rate.

Please familiarise yourself with your practitioners schedule of fees.

Cancellation / Confirmation Policy

At the Centre for Health and Wellbeing we provide an SMS reminder service for all appointments which is sent 1-2 business days prior to your appointment. Please ensure you also record your appointment in your diary or phone calendar as it is your responsibility to remember your appointment.  We require you to advise us immediately if you need to change or cancel an appointment and at the latest by 1pm the previous business day.  This allows someone from the waiting list to take advantage of your vacated time and minimises their waiting time to see their doctor.

If you fail to attend your appointment without notification, you will incur a full fee billed to your account. This must be paid before you attend your next appointment. A late notice of cancellation on the same day as your appointment will incur a fee ranging from $30 to the full amount depending on the circumstances and the practitioner. Medicare or private health rebates cannot be claimed on these non-attendance and late cancellation fees.

Patient Recall / Results Policy

Patients are advised of all test results and treatment plans in a consultation. It is the responsibility of the patient to book a follow up appointment to discuss results unless your practitioner has specifically advised you otherwise. Due to the personal and detailed nature of results, they will not be advised over the phone, unless it is part of a telephone consultation or your practitioner has advised you otherwise. If your practitioner does speak to you over the telephone and the nature of the call extends beyond a few minutes, this will be treated as a telephone consultation and you will be billed accordingly (link to fees). There is no Medicare rebate for a telephone consultation.

Telephone or Skype consultations

If you have Covid, or you live in a rural area, or interstate, or you have mobility issues, you are welcome to request a telephone or video consultation with your practitioner. This will be booked into a normal consultation time and you will be billed for a telehealth consultation (link to fees). There are several Medicare requirements to be eligible for a Medicare rebate and the amounts vary between telephone and video consultations.

Transfer of Medical Notes/Record to another Health Professional

To ensure appropriate on going care, when a patient requires the transfer of medical notes/record to another Health Professional then Doctors are entitled to recover from the patient the reasonable cost of providing this information.

While records containing patient medical information do not belong to the patient, the patient has a legal right to access those records.

The fee for the transfer of medical notes range from $20.00 to $30.00.

Patient Contact Details

It is the patient’s responsibility to ensure that their contact details are current at all times not only with us but also with Medicare.