Practice Policies & Appointment Information
BetterConsult Pre-Consultation Questionnaires
Your doctor may use BetterConsult pre-consultation questionnaires to give you the privacy and time to answer questions about your history, symptoms and current medications more accurately. This secure pre-consultation questionnaire lets your doctor spend more time with you during your appointment, discussing treatment options, answering your questions, and focusing on your health outcomes.
Before your appointment, you may receive an SMS with a link to complete this multiple-choice online questionnaire for your doctor. It is safe to click this link, but if you are unsure, please speak with our Reception team.
Be consult ready:
- Help your doctor know the reasons for your visit
- Request scripts and a medical certificate so you don’t forget
- Get more face-to-face time with your doctor
- All your responses are private and confidential
BetterConsult is a safe and secure platform and all data is deleted within 72 hours.
Patient Feedback
Our goal is to provide a quality, caring service in all our practices. Therefore if you have any concerns or suggestions please phone, write or e-mail our Senior Medical Receptionist in the clinic.
We genuinely wish to hear from you. From time to time this practice invites patients to complete questionnaires on their views of the practice and how it could be improved. These surveys are completely confidential and help us improve our services.
We believe that problems are best dealt with through the practice. Indeed we want to know if you are concerned about any aspect of our service.
However, if you prefer to contact the Queensland Government Centre for handling complaints, you can contact the Office of the Health Ombudsman on phone 133 646 or website – https://www.oho.qld.gov.au.
Appointments
Our practices run an Appointment System; however we do keep openings for emergencies.
You can make an appointment with your doctor by phoning the surgery. Urgent medical problems will be dealt with promptly. Appointments are made at 10 – 20 minute intervals. When making your appointment please advise staff if you need extra time.
Nobody likes to be kept waiting and we are all aware of this and try to adhere to appointment schedules. However, the unpredictable nature of medical practice means that doctors sometimes run behind time. This is mostly due to a patient requiring urgent medical attention. We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused to patients when we fall behind with our appointment schedule.
It is our practicies policy that our patients/clients must consent to receiving SMS consent to appointment reminders and practice reminders.
We would really appreciate if you no longer need your appointment, if you would phone to cancel. Please note the practice will invoice patients $65 for non-attendance if the clinic is not notified of cancellation 24 hours prior to appointment.
Home Visits
Home visits will be provided at the doctors discretion.
After Hours Services
Should you require medical attention after hours, please telephone 13SICK on 137 425 for further information.
Our after-hours medical services are held in conjunction with Family Medical Services who are a fully accredited service.
To download the app for National Home Doctor Service, go to
http://www.homedoctor.com.au/contact-us and follow the links for AppStore or Google Play.
Patient Rights
Patients have the right, and are encouraged, to participate and provide feedback in decisions about their healthcare.
Phoning your Doctor
Doctors in this practice may be contacted by phone during surgery hours. A message will be taken if the doctor is with another patient and your call will be returned when the doctor is available.
Test Results
Where blood tests or other investigations have been ordered, you will generally need to make a follow-up appointment to discuss the results. If the doctor is concerned about your results, the staff will contact you to make an appointment. To ensure confidentiality, test results will not be given over the phone.
Repeat Prescriptions and Referrals
Patients requiring repeat prescriptions can either make an appointment to see the doctor or call and give the clinic 24 hours notice, it is important to note that the doctor needs to personally hand the prescription to the patient upon collection. If patients are unable to come in to see the doctor then the practice can post prescriptions to you however this service incurs a $20 fee.
Specialist Referrals
Our practice regularly engages with local health services such as specialists, allied health and hospitals. If required your GP will provide sufficient information (referral letter) to plan and facilitate optimal patient care.
Disability Facilities
This practices are designed for wheelchair access. We have a wheelchair available if required. Should you have special needs please discuss them with your doctor.
Translating & Interpreter Services
If you require the services of an interpreting service our staff have access to the TIS and NABS. Please advise reception on booking your appointment that these services are required so arrangements can be made.
Fees
Please call our friendly reception teams for appointment fee information at each clinic location.
You may request your medical records be transferred to an alternate GP. A fee may apply. Please contact your local clinic directly for details. Information that is no longer needed, or required to be held by law, will be securely destroyed or de-identified.
Reminder System in all our practices
We have in place a computerized recall system. You will be reminded to attend the surgery for an appointment if your doctor feels that it is appropriate.
Children & Babies
Most of our practices have a play area available for children and babies, please ask your preferred practice about this service. Where available, we also have a baby change table for use should you require to change your baby’s nappy. Please ask our reception staff to direct you to this facility.
Taxis
Please do not hesitate to ask our reception team to order a taxi to and/or from the surgery should you require one. Most of our practices also have a large car park which incorporate an ambulance bay, patient parking.
Information Brochures
Our practices have a large selection of brochures and leaflets for your perusal. There is a brochure stand in our waiting area. If you cannot find the relevant information, please ask our staff and they will find or order in what you require.
Your privacy, our concern
In accord with the Privacy Act (1988) all information collected in this practice is treated as “sensitive information”. To protect your privacy, this practice operates strictly in accordance with the Act. We use this information you provide to manage your personal health care. We generally disclose selected information to various other health services involved in supporting your health care management (e.g. pathology, x-ray). If you have any questions about how we handle your personal health information or need to arrange access to your records, please ask the Practice Manager or your doctor, as appropriate.
Patient Electronic Communication Policy
Email can be used by our practice to transmit information outside the practice. Patients/Guardians requests via email is taken as implied consent to transfer patient information via email.
It is a Practice policy that no consultation will be conducted via email. The doctors will not usually discuss results over electronic communication as we cannot guarantee confidentiality. There may be exceptional circumstances, however this is at the discretion of the doctor and must be communicated and agreed upon at the time of face-to-face consultation.
The practice has an obligation to take reasonable steps to protect the privacy and security of information it holds including when it is transmitted or disclosed outside the organisation. Ideally communication should be via secure messaging or encryption but this is at times not possible when emailing patients. Electronic communication is generally used only for correspondence of a non-urgent and non-sensitive nature. While all reasonable efforts are made to provide security via email communication users should be aware that there are inherent risks in the transmission of information across the Internet and as such may not be secure.
The practice follows the RACGP recommendations to reduce the risk of interception of data and sending emails to incorrect addresses, including:
- use of passwords for sensitive information
- verification of the patient’s identity (3 approved identifiers) and email address
- obtaining and recording patient verbal or written consent
- use of secure messaging facilities between practices where available
While Emails are reviewed on a daily basis, we kindly advise we can take up to 2 working days to respond to a patients query via return email at the time of receipt. For any urgent queries, we recommend calling our clinic for immediate attention.