Patient Information

Please call our friendly Admin team on (08) 8230 6900 Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm or Saturday 8am to 12pm to make an appointment. You can also book online at HotDoc. We use the services of HotDoc for all online bookings and their privacy policy can be found here.

We endeavour to ensure you see your usual doctor at all visits, however, when this is not possible, any of our doctors will be happy to see you. Our fully computerised medical notes ensure continuity of care.

A standard appointment is 15 minutes.

Longer appointments are available if you have several or complex issues to discuss for example:

• Mental health
• Pregnancy testing, shared care & postnatal care
• Chronic disease care
• GP Management Plans
• Multiple medical issues

Additional appointments for the day become available each morning for urgent care so please call first thing in the morning to see what is available.

To be eligible for Medicare rebates on telehealth fees you must have had a face to face appointment in the clinic in the last 12 months unless you have Covid 19 infection or are under 12 months of age.

Telehealth appointments are usually reserved for simple requests such as repeat prescriptions and referrals. Generally, requests for radiology imaging are not able to be done over the phone as it is good medical practice that a patient needs to be seen and examined before the correct radiology imaging can be requested.

Your doctor may suggest a face to face appointment after your telehealth appointment for further assessment.

We use the services of HotDoc for all online bookings and their privacy policy can be found here.

Some of our doctors provide non urgent home visits for their regular patient who are unable to come into the clinic. Please call our front desk staff to discuss further on (08) 8230 6900.

Repeat Prescriptions:

• All prescriptions require an appointment to ensure quality care, either telehealth or a face to face appointment.
• Doctors check your ongoing need, correct dosage, and any side effects.
• Patients are encouraged to check their need for repeat prescriptions during scheduled check-up appointments, please make sure you have enough repeats to last till your next appointment to avoid situations where you run out of medication.
• Unforeseen needs in between regular appointments can be addressed with a brief ‘Prescription Only’ appointment.
• Prescriptions can either be sent to the patients phone, secure email to the chemist of choice or printed and left for pick up at the front desk.

Specialist Referrals:

• All referrals require an appointment as required by Medicare either via Telehealth or a face to face consultation.
• Specialist referrals generally last for 12 months, some specialist accept indefinite referrals (usually 5 yrs) so please check with your specialist rooms before your appointment.
• Referrals cannot be backdated so to avoid situations where you maybe left ineligible for a Medicare rebate from your specialist please check in advance when your referral expires.

Repeat prescriptions and repeat referrals will incur a fee, please see fee schedule for further information.

When the Practice is closed, our phone number diverts to an after hours locum service.

You can get health advice 24 hours a day via Health Direct, 1800 022 222, or visit their website for a symptom checker and other resources.

Medicare Urgent Care Clinics

This service gives you more options to see a doctor or nurse when you need care for urgent, but not life-threatening health conditions, and cannot get an appointment at your usual GP.

Find more information here.

Child and Adolescent Virtual Urgent Care Service

The Women’s and Children’s Hospital provides this service 7 days a week from 9am to 9pm. This service is staffed by highly skilled paediatric emergency Nurses and Doctors who will assess your child and provide advice or referral to an appropriate service for ongoing care.

Find more information here.

When following up of results for tests and investigations, your doctor may ask you to return for a consultation or advice you to book a telehealth consult usually 1 week later. Some doctors will send you an SMS with simple instructions or to notify you that the results are normal. If the doctor wishes to discuss your results with you, you may receive a text message asking you to book a non-urgent appointment. Results will electronically be sent back to the referring doctor. These results will be checked by the doctor. Any urgent results will be actioned by the doctor in a timely manner.

Results take time to become available, so please be patient. Please note that reception are unable to provide patient test results in person or over the phone.

Results are also available after 7 days on your My Health Record.

We are limiting requests for printed paper results via Reception, results if requested can be emailed via a secure link but please note this email needs to be opened within 1 week of it being sent otherwise it expires.

You will receive an SMS reminder for your appointments the day before your consultation.

If you are unable to make your appointment, please call to cancel as there are a limited number of appointments and a long waiting list. This enables this appointment to be given to someone else.

If you cancel the appointment within 3 hrs of your scheduled appointment there will be a cancellation fee. Please see fees for further detail.

We also send electronic notifications of clinical reminders when you are due via SMS (such as Bowel Screening and Cervical Screening tests, and vaccinations). These clinical reminders are protected by an identification process which will require you to provide your surname and date of birth to identify yourself before the text will open. Please let us know if you do not want these services or have any questions about them.

If you would like to speak with your Doctor please make an appointment. This includes referral and script renewals, and any paperwork or medical form requests.

Our Practice Nurses can provide advice and care for acute and chronic illnesses. They are well equipped at handling queries and liaising with Doctors if needed.

Email Communication

Doctors at this Practice do not use email for communication with patients about personal medical information so please do not email the doctors any personal information. The doctors are not legally allowed to give advice via email. This includes emails from family or friends. Please book an appointment to discuss.

If the doctor has requested any photos or information, please use the patientdocs@eahc.com.au address which is secure. Before we send you any information by email, we will carefully double check the email address you provide, and ensure we have your consent. Please advise us of changes to your email address.

In order to maintain a safe place for staff and patients we enforce a strict behaviour policy.

The below behaviours will not be tolerated:

• Aggressive or discourteous behaviour, be it violent or abusive, verbal or physical.
• Unrealistic or persistent demands.

We just wanted to remind you that our staff often juggle a bunch of different tasks and tricky situations at the same time. Our team always aims to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to everyone’s needs and circumstances.

We know that being unwell can sometimes make things difficult and various emotions can be expressed at these times. We’ll do our best to handle any misunderstandings or complaints with care. We’ll always try to meet your requests within our Practice policies.

We have 2 disabled car parks out the front of the building at EAHC Marden and automatic doors and the front entrance. There are plenty of carparks at the back of the building for patient use. There are lifts up to level 1 (the GP rooms) and stairs for those who do not wish to take the lifts or times when the lifts are not working.

Do you have any of these symptoms?

• Fever
• Diarrhoea
• Cough
• Nausea or muscle pain
• Sore throat
• Fatigue
• Runny nose
• Headaches
• Shortness of breath
• Change in smell or taste

If you have an appointment booked whilst you are unwell with any of the above symptoms we ask that you change your appointment to Telehealth or rebook to a later date where possible.

If a face to face appointment is necessary while you are unwell, please call and speak to Reception or one of our Nurses as we have specific procedures for infection control. We will require a negative RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) in addition to using isolation rooms.

Please wear a mask when you enter the building, report to the front desk and the friendly admin staff will direct you to an isolation room instead of the waiting room.