What To Bring To Your Appointment

  • Your Medicare card or Veteran Affairs card
  • Any centrelink card (pension card, health care card, etc)
  • Any relevant paperwork required
  • Your medications, or a list of them.
  • Your health folder if you have one.
  • Your child’s immunisation booklet if relevant.

Appointment

We operate on an appointment only basis – unless an emergency occurs. Urgent Brunswick medical problems are always given priority.

To help us meet your needs it is essential that you book an appropriate length of time. All new patients are given a longer appointment for their first visit. Some minor surgical procedures require longer times and special arrangements may be necessary please let reception know.

There are a limited amount of daily access appointments. Daily access are reserved for urgent medical matters that need to be seen on the day. These appointments will incur an extra $5 fee.

Our doctor’s work as a team. Shared access to comprehensive computerised records ensures that any of our doctors can review essential information about your medical history and manage your problem.

Changing Your Appointment

Please phone to cancel your appointment. We would appreciate 24 hours notice to enable us to book another patient in. If a patient fails to attend their appointment without notification, they may be charged a fee.

If You Have To Wait

The practitioners at Moreland General Practice appreciate that your time is important and do their best to run to time. However, the nature of general practice can make this difficult. Medical emergencies need to be attended to, and some patients may take longer than anticipated.

We encourage patients who have bookings later in the morning or afternoon to call prior to leaving home, to see if their doctor is running to time.

If you are unable to wait, please let the receptionist know and your doctor will be informed. If you wish to reschedule please arrange this with the receptionist.

We understand that at times some patients may feel unable to wait in the waiting room due to ill health or distress – if this is the case, please inform the reception staff and they will be happy to escort you to a more private room.

Special Needs

Please discuss any special needs with the doctor or reception staff. There is wheelchair access from the Brunswick Private Hospital entrance.

Telephone Calls

Doctors are accessible by telephone for urgent matters only. Please inform the receptionist, so that we can arrange for the doctor to speak to you immediately.

For non-urgent matters, the receptionist will take your message and pass it onto the doctor. Generally speaking, you will be able to call back in a few hours to find out the doctors reply.

Repeat Prescriptions

It is important that you try to remember to obtain your prescriptions and referrals during your consultation with the doctor.

Repeat prescriptions without a consultation may be available in some cases, at the doctor’s discretion. There will be a $15 charge and a 48 hour wait. No Medicare rebate is available for this service.

If you only require scripts or quick documentation (e.g., single referral), please request a quick script appointment (with our rostered doctor) – this appointment will be bulk billed.

Specialist Referrals

A referral is needed for you to get a Medicare refund for the fees charged by a specialist.

Medicare requires that referrals are issued in advance of your consultation with a specialist. For these reasons, referrals are not available without consultation, and cannot be backdated.

Some repeat referrals for continuing care may be written at the doctor’s discretion, if so, there will be a 48 hour wait and a $15.00 charge.

Test Results

Your doctor will generally request that you make an appointment for discussion of test results. Results of medical tests are usually available 3-4 days after the test has been done.

Depending on the nature of the test the doctor may sometimes suggest you can phone for the results. If so, please call the practice between 11am -3pm Monday to Friday.

Reception staff do not have access to specific details of results. Reception staff can only check if the results are back, and if the doctor have left a message regarding the results.

Due to the numerous amounts of calls from patients wanting to know their results, doctors at Moreland General Practice have decided: NO RESULTS WILL BE GIVEN OUT TO PATIENTS VIA TELEPHONE.

We may try to contact you regarding test results, either by phone or mail.

Reminder System

We may send you a reminder notice from time to time offering you preventative Brunswick health services appropriate to your care. If you do not wish to be part of this system please let the reception staff know.

Patient Feedback Or Complaints

If you have any concerns about your medical care or any complaints please discuss these with your doctor or the Practice Manager, Gerry Formica.

We value your opinion on the service we provide and are always happy to receive comments. Any feedback on our practice helps us to deliver a better service and we are grateful for it.

If you wish to take the matter further with an independent authority you may contact the:
Health Services Commissioner
Free call 1800 136 066