FAQs

Consultations are made by appointment with the Doctor of your choice. Urgent cases are seen by the first available Doctor. If you appointment is not for a standard consultation, we would appreciate you letting the receptionist know so that extra time may be allowed. Another appointment may need to be scheduled for you if there are multiple issues to discuss or if more than one family member is to be seen. This prevents other people’s appointments being delayed, and ensures a calm, unhurried doctor. Due to the unpredictable nature of general practice consultations, the doctors may occasionally run behind schedule. We apologise for this inconvenience and will endeavour to keep you informed of any delays. Appointments can be made online via our website.

Some complex medical issues may take longer or require additional time with our Practice Nurse. If you feel you require a longer consultation time than 15minutes please notify reception when making your appointment, examples of these may be procedures, skin checks, multiple medical issues eg. pap smear combined with other medical issues, health plans, mental health plans and consultation, immunisation, diabetes checks.

Our practice is committed to preventative care. If a Doctor needs to contact you about a test recall or clinical reminders (such as pap smears, immunisations, chronic disease management and health assessments) they would like to do so through an SMS message. This type of message will be automatically available to all patients who have consented to our SMS reminders for appointments and have a mobile number listed. This will allow you to book your appointments for results online (if you choose) or call us to make an appointment. These messages will be confidential and do not contain any clinical information.

You can choose to ‘Opt out’ at any point by talking to reception staff or responding via SMS. If you do not have a mobile number in our system, we will continue to contact you via your current preferred method. Our Practice Policy is we will only contact you for results if they need to be discussed with a doctor. If you don’t hear from us, your test results do not require further action.

Your medical record is a confidential document which. It is the policy of this practice to adhere to the AMA code of Ethics regarding Privacy and Confidentiality. Please be assured that your medical records and consultations are kept in the strictest confidence. You can view our Privacy Policy here.

Most scripts are written by the Doctor to provide sufficient medication until your condition needs to be reviewed, as such, our doctors are unable to provide a script without a consultation. If you are in need of another script, please contact reception to arrange an appointment.

Your family doctor is highly trained to deal with most medical problems, but may need occasionally to refer you to a specialist. To receive a Medicare rebate for a specialist visit, you need a referral, and will need to see your doctor first. As it is illegal to backdate referrals, please do not ask us to break the law. The specialist is providing consultant advice to your GP, so it is important that you discuss the specialist’s opinion and advice with the doctor who referred you, following your visit with the specialist. Specialist consultations are not bulk-billed. Please check the out of pocket cost when you book your appointment.

We try to keep interruptions to a consultation to a minimum. You can help us by noting the following:

• Please state if it is an emergency.
• Please state if the doctor has asked you to call them back, regarding results or to check on your condition. (The doctor will attempt to call you at their earliest opportunity)
• You can book in for an over-the-phone consultation with your doctor.

If the GP is with a patient, a message will be taken and the reception staff will advise you when it is likely that the GP will be able to return your call.

You are welcome to e-mail us if you have an enquiry, however consultations or questions regarding your health care cannot be conducted via these methods.

Please note that patient health information is not able to be transmitted via email with a PIN locking the document. This PIN can be obtained by phoning our reception team upon receipt of the document. It will be can also posted collected from our clinic.

Medical care is available on a 24-hour basis covered by the National Home Doctor Service. If you require medical attention outside of our opening hours, please telephone 137 425 (13 SICK) and you will be advised of current arrangements.

Also available for out of hours consultations are the Hello Home Doctor Service, who you can contact on 134 100.

We team with the above Home Doctor Services to ensure our patients have quality medical care available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If, on occasion, you are seen by a Doctor from the Home Doctor Services, a full written report will be faxed to us for inclusion in your records, usually the next day.

A fee will be charged for non-attendance of appointments.

A non-attendance fee applies to appointments not attended, and also appointments changed or moved less than 2 hours prior to the appointment time.

This will be $40.00 for a standard consultation or $80.00 for a long appointment that has been booked but not attended. Extenuating circumstances will always be taken into account

Manly Village Medical respects your privacy. Your medical record is a confidential document. It is the policy of this practice to maintain security of personal health information at all times and to ensure that this information is only available to authorised members of staff. Please ask a member of Reception if you would like a copy of our Privacy Policy.

Your feedback is important to our Practice. Manly Village Medical aims to serve you the best way we can. We welcome your suggestions on how we can improve. We take your concerns, suggestions and complaints seriously. Please feel free to talk to your Doctor or ask to speak to our Practice Manager, Jane Pocock, or send an e-mail to manager@manlyvillagemedical.com.au. If your complaint was unresolved, or if you wish to raise a complaint externally, please contact the Office of the Health Ombudsman Tel: 133 646.

For those speaking a language other than English, a telephone interpreting service is available free of charge. If you (or a family member or friend) require this service, please inform the receptionist when making your appointment or telephone the interpreting hotline on 131 450.

Doctors may perform home visits when appropriate, and if time allows. However they are generally restricted to those who are a regular patient of our Doctors and are too frail or ill to get to the surgery. We have better facilities to accurately diagnose and treat you at the practice than are possible at home.

Having a My Health Record means your important health information like allergies, current conditions and treatments, medicine details, pathology reports or diagnostic imaging scan reports can be digitally stored in one place. Healthcare providers like doctors, specialists and hospital staff can see these details online from anywhere at any time when they need to, such as in an accident or emergency. Speak to your doctor about registering. For more information click here.

Medical or sickness certificates are written for genuine illnesses only, and cannot be post-dated.

If you leave our practice and attend a GP elsewhere, we will provide an up-to-date summary of your medical record, upon request. If your entire record is requested, this will be made available after paying an administrative fee dependant on the size of your patient chart.

We are happy to discuss the potential fees regarding an entire record request. Please feel free to talk to your Doctor or ask to speak to our Practice Manager.

If you are making an appointment for childhood, influenza or travel vaccinations, or for wound care, please let our receptionist know. A practice nurse will be available at certain times to assist with these procedures.