Appointments

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• Appointments can be made via our phone or in person with one of our reception team. Standard consultations are in 15-minute intervals and long consultations are allocated 30-minutes.

• Appointment can also be made online via our website or via the HotDoc app on your mobile phone.

• We make every effort to ensure clients are seen on their preferred day with the doctor of their choice.

• Due to doctor avaliability our South Wangaratta Medical site does not accept walk-in appointments. Our Docker Street site does however accept walk-in appointments

• Medicare cards should be brought to every appointment

• Provisions are made in our appointment system for emergency consultations.

• Specific issues, such as complex medical examinations, health assessments, care plans and medical procedures require longer appointments and must be booked in advance and through reception.

• Please advise your doctor at the start of your consultation if you have several matters you wish to discuss. You may be asked to book a further appointment at a later stage if you have multiple requests/issues because of time restraints.

• We understand your time is valuable and will make every effort to ensure your waiting time is kept to a minimum. Sometimes general practice is unpredictable and urgent medical needs will be given priority.

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Contacting Our Practices

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• To be able to contact you, please ensure we have your correct telephone numbers, address and the details of your next of kin.

Facilities:

• Our doctors may be contacted during normal practice opening hours. If the doctor is in a consultation, a message will be taken and our receptionist will advise you when it is likely that the doctor will return your call. Emergency calls will always be put through to your doctor.

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Results, repeat prescriptions & refferals

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• Your doctor will advise when results are expected to arrive at the practice. Please make an appointment to correspond with this time.

• We believe it is good medical practice to make an appointment when it comes to repeat prescriptions or referrals to allied health and specialists. There may be some out of pocket costs associated with the specialist you are referred to depending on their practice policy.

All conditions that require on going medication need to be reviewed and monitored to confirm the need for ongoing treatment. The amount of medication and number of prescription repeats provided is at the discretion of your doctor ad in line for responsible prescribing.

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Recalls & reminders

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• Our practice is committed to preventative care and patients will be offered ‘screening medical examinations’ for early detection of serious medical conditions, such as: diabetes, asthma, cervical cancer (via cervical screening/pap smears) and other chronic medical conditions.

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Home visits

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• Where safe and reasonable, our practice doctors provide care to regular patients at home or in aged care and residential care facilities. Please call as early in the day as possible to organise a home visit (subject to availability)

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After hours arrangements

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• Our practice provides 24/7 care to our patients. If you require attention when our practice is close, please call 0402647739 and our on-call doctor will provide advice.

• In a medical emergency, call for an ambulance on ‘000’.

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Your personal health information & privacy

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• The provision of quality health care requires a doctor-patient relationship of trust and confidentiality

• This practice protects your personal health information to ensure it is only available to authorised members of staff, for intended persons and to comply with The Privacy Act.

• Our clinic adheres to the highest standards in security of storage and transmission of health records

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Complaints & Feedback

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• Your feedback, both positive and negative is an invaluable communication tool and is used to improve our practice and our provision of service.

• We strive to improve for your benefit, please direct any queries or complaints to our practice manager – Kim Ching

If you have a complaint that you wish to take further, you may contact:

Office of the Health Services Commissioner

Phone: 03 8601 520 or toll free 1800 136 066

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Facilities

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• Our practice is wheelchair friendly and has accessible parking located out the front of the practice

• We have a strict no smoking policy in our building and our premises

• Translation services can be arranged for patients who have difficulty speaking or understanding English. We do have doctors that are fluent in Farsi, Pakistani, Sinhalese, Tamil, Urdu, German, French available if needed.

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