The practice is open from 8:30am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday, except Public Holidays.

Our consulting hours are Monday to Friday 10:00am-12:45pm and 2:00pm-4:45pm.

We encourage you to make an appointment with your preferred doctor by telephoning the surgery. Urgent medical problems will be dealt with promptly.
Every effort will be made to provide you with your preferred time and doctor, however due to seasonal demand or doctor absence, we may not be able to accommodate your specific request. Our staff will endeavour to provide you with alternate options.

Appointments are usually made at fifteen minute intervals. This may change if there has been an emergency, or if the surgery is very busy.

Emergencies will be given priority and our staff will attempt to contact you if there is a delay.

Please give thought to the amount of time your appointment may require and if there are complex issues or multiple problems you wish to discuss, please let our staff know when you book so that they can allocate the appropriate amount of time for your visit. Longer appointments are often required for medicals, counselling, cervical screening tests, procedures, new patients, multiple or complex issues.

If you wish, you can phone the surgery before your appointment to check whether the doctor is running on time.

Telephone Consultations
Providing you have been seen by one of our GPs in the past twelve months, you may be eligible to have your consultation over the phone rather that face to face. We strongly recommend having a telephone consultation if you have a contagious illness, to avoid spreading the illness to others in the waiting room. During your telephone consult, your GP may organise a time for you to be reviewed face to face, if required.

Telephone consultations are scheduled in 15-minute increments. While we strive to accommodate your preferred time, availability may vary. We appreciate your understanding of the scheduling process.

New Patients
We welcome new patients (from within our catchment area) at the Crystal Brook Medical Practice & Laura District Medical Practice. New patients typically require a 30 minute appointment with one of our Practice Nurses, along with a 30 minute appointment with a Doctor. This allows enough time for the nurses and Doctor to collect important medical information and history from you. We ask that new patients pay their first attendance in full on the day.

Cancelled Appointments or Non Attendance
Please notify our friendly receptionists – at least 3 hours prior to your scheduled appintment – if you are unable to attend. Non attendance of booked appointments may incur a fee of $30 (non-Medicare rebatable).

Level B consults will be charged at $83.00 – the rebate from Medicare is $42.85. If you need more time with the doctor, please tell the receptionist when making your appointment. For Level C consults involving multiple issues, you will usually be charged $123.00 – the rebate from Medicare is $82.90.

For home visits, the standard fee is $111.00 (rebate $72.85) and for longer visits $145.15 (rebate $112.90). Please note that home visits are at the discretion of the doctor and not available to all patients.

We ask that all fees be paid in full at the time of consultation.

If you have any concerns regarding the fees, please feel free to ask the receptionist. These can be paid by cash, card or cheque.

Concession
Health Care Card, Pensioners and DVA cardholders must present their card, as they will be bulk billed.

Some procedures, investigations or treatments may attract an additional cost. If you think this may apply to you and you would like some more information, ask the reception staff as they will be able to advise you.

For medical emergencies, please call 000.

We look after our patients at all times of the day and night. When the surgery is closed, you should contact either the Crystal Brook or Laura Hospitals, and when appropriate, nursing staff will arrange with the on-call doctor.

Southern Flinders Health – Crystal Brook Campus – 08 8636 1100
Southern Flinders Health – Laura Campus – 08 8663 3100

If you are too sick to come to the surgery or hospital outpatients, you live in the Crystal Brook or Laura area and you are a patient of our practice, we may – at the doctor’s discretion – be able to provide a home visit.

Visits can also be arranged for palliative care patients, patients in local residential aged care facilities, and at the hospital.

Prescriptions
Most prescriptions provide sufficient medication to last until your condition needs to be reviewed by your Doctor. With very few exceptions (approved by the Doctor), prescriptions are not routinely written without consultation – this ensures that your Doctor is able to determine the appropriate medications at the time. It is your responsibility to make your appointment in a timely manner, to ensure your ongoing supply of medication.

Sick Certificates
It is a legal requirement for you to have a consultation with a doctor for a sick certificate to be issued. It is illegal for sick certificates to be backdated.

If you are unable to book an appointment for a sick certificate, some pharmacies are able to supply certificates for a fee.

Our practice provides promotion, illness, prevention & preventative care & a reminder system based on patient need and best available evidence. We use a computerised reminder system for recall of patients (eg smear, diabetes recalls, immunisations).

If you do not wish your records to be on the recall system or if you do not wish your details to be used for anonymous research projects, please notify the doctor or reception staff.

We are able to send SMS appointment reminders. If you would like to utilise this service, please speak to reception staff.

Patients are advised that it is their responsibility to follow up any investigations undertaken. Results of routine tests are normally available within two working days. Some tests such as cervical screening tests or specialised blood tests may take 1-2 weeks.

For any abnormal results, we will notify you by your preferred method of contact. Alternatively, you can telephone us to obtain your results. We would prefer you to contact us between 1:00pm and 2:00pm.

Results can only be given to the patient whose name appears on the test – unless they are a minor. For patient privacy, our staff will need to check the identity of the caller by confirming certain details.

Our administrative staff are not medically trained to interpret results, but are happy to provide you with the Doctor’s notations. If you require further information or you have a query regarding the information you are provided with, we encourage you to schedule an appointment to discuss with your Doctor.

Medicare legislation requires that a patient has a valid referral to see a specialist to receive their Medicare rebate entitlement. A referral from your GP is valid for only 12 months from the date of issue. If you have yearly specialist appointments, then a new referral is required for each appointment.

It is illegal for a GP to back date a referral.

You may still be able to visit your specialist without a referral, however a Medicare rebate will not be paid towards the cost of the visit and you will be required to pay the full fee (no gap).

Your patient health information is disclosed in the referral document. If you feel uncomfortable with this, please speak to your doctor.

It is the responsibility of the patient to ensure their referral is current prior to specialist appointments.

The practice policy for GPs and clinical staff receiving and returning telephone calls is that calls will be returned between patients, during breaks or at the end of the day – at the doctor’s discretion. Please notify staff is the matter is urgent.

Communication with patients via electronic means (eg email) is conducted with appropriate regard to the privacy and confidentiality of the patient’s health information and is not encouraged by the practice.

The practice does have a social media platform (Facebook) and this is used to keep patients informed of any upcoming events, health outbreaks and practice updates. Please do not direct message our Facebook page or individual staff profiles regarding appointments, results, etc. All contact should be via Telephone.

Held Tuesday mornings in the Community Services Building at the Crystal Brook Hospital. Appointments are made via the surgery for this clinic. Six week check-ups for mother and baby are seen on Tuesday mornings at the Claridge Road surgery.

It is the policy of the practice to NOT prescribe Opiates on your first visit to the practice.

Our practice hosts Intern doctors and participates in medical student training. The receptionist will – if possible – advise you that a third party person will be present at your consult when booking your appointment, then at attendance at reception, and again on entering consulting rooms.

Please advise us if you are not comfortable with the presence of a third party.

Occasionally, the practice participates in clinical audits using de-identified information. If you have concerns about this, please talk to a staff member.

Infant Care
Change table facilities are location in the patients toilet.

Access for Persons with Disabilities
Disabled car parks and access to each practice is located at the front of the building. Assistance (eg. wheel chair) can be requested when making the appointment, or on arrival.

Interpreter
If you or a family member require an interpreter service, please advise us when you book an appointment so this can be organised.

Smoking
It is the policy of the Practice, the Crystal Brook & District Hospital and the Laura & District Hospital, that smoking not be permitted within the grounds.

Infection Control
We use single-use medical instruments in our practice. Each instrument is designed for single-use only, ensuring optimal safety and hygiene standards. After a single procedure on an individual patient, the instrument is disposed of and not intended for reprocessing or reuse, even for the same patient.

We value your input to our practice. If you think there are ways that we can better provide our services to you, please feel free to make a suggestion. If these suggestions are acted upon, we will post them on the ‘Notice Board’ in the waiting room so that all patients are informed.

From time to time, this practice invites patients to complete a questionnaire on their views of the practice and how it could be improved. These surveys are completely confidential and help us to improve our services.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of the care you receive from this practice, we are keen to know about it. Please feel free to talk to your doctor or the receptionist about any issues you have with the service we provide. You may prefer to email us or use our suggestion box in the waiting room. We take your concerns seriously.

We believe that problems are best dealt with in the practice. Indeed, we want to know if you are concerned about any aspect of our service. However, if you do feel there is a problem you wish to take further, then the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner on 1800 232 007 would be able to help. Alternatively, members of the public may make a notification to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) about the conduct, health or performance of a practitioner or that of a student. If your complaint is about privacy, then the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) would be able to help.