ABOUT THE PRACTICE
Fraser Coast Medical Centre is sited in a purpose-built surgery opposite Woolworth’s Plaza. There are six doctors who together have interests that cover a wide variety of the sub-specialties of Medicine. The surgery has six consulting rooms, a large minor operations theatre and dressing’s room, investigations room, and full disabled facilities, including wheelchair ramp access and toilet. The reception desk uses the latest computer technology. This will make processing of Medicare and private billing more efficient, freeing the staff to spend more time looking directly after patients needs. All the doctors use computers on their desktop. This will ensure privacy of your medical information, as the access to all documents is password protected. Prescribing is also by computer. This technology is designed to increase the efficiency, reduce mistakes and significantly contribute to the management of resources in the Practice. The Dr’s working within the surgery aim to provide the highest quality of patient care with professionalism, care and respect.
APPOINTMENTS
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HOTDOC – Appointments can be made via Hotdoc on the APP or on the Hotdoc website or alternatively please phone 41241122 for an appointment. Please note there will be a non refundable “Non Attendance” fee of $50 for all new patients to the practice who fail to attend their initial appointment. If you are unable to make your appointment please call the practice to cancel as soon as possible. Reception staff will make every effort to accommodate your preferred time for an appointment. Emergencies will always be given priority and our
reception staff will attempt to contact you if there are any unforeseen delays due to your doctor being called away. Longer consultation times are available so please ask our reception staff if you require some extra time. If you or your family require an interpreter service, assistance with communication, assistance with mobility, need to lie down or just need some privacy, please let us know when you make an appointment. If you would prefer to see the doctor with a chaperone present please ask at reception. Patients who arrive at the surgery without an appointment, and ask to be seen urgently, will be triaged in consultation with their doctor.
RESULTS & REFERRAL LETTERS
If you are sent for blood tests or radiology tests your doctor will advise you at the time of your consultation whether to phone back or make a follow-up appointment to get your test results. If your doctor is referring you to a specialist or allied health professional please collect your referral letter before your specialist appointment, unless the Dr indicated they will send the referral electronically directly to the specialist. The turn around time on letters being dictated and typed for collection is usually less than a week.
​SERVICES
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The surgery offers a wide range of facilities including, all child and adult vaccinations, cervical screening, well-woman and well-man health checks, blood sugar monitoring, minor operations, Electrocardiography, spirometry, tympanometry and home blood pressure monitoring. We comply fully with the strict sterilisation standards as set by the Royal College of General Practitioners.
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PATIENT FEEDBACK
All patient information is strictly confidential and participation in any research to improve health awareness and/or treatment is at the patient’s discretion. From time to time we conduct a survey of patient views of the practice. These surveys are important in helping us to continue to provide a quality service. 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 the doctor, receptionist or practice manager. If you prefer anonymity, please feel free to write us a letter. We believe that problems are best dealt with within the practice and would encourage you to speak to us about any aspect of the service that you are unhappy about. However, if you feel there is a problem you wish to take up outside of the practice, you may prefer to contact the Queensland Government Centre for handling complaints. The address appears below:
Health Ombudsman
PO Box 13281
George St
Brisbane Qld 4001
Phone: 133 646
THE STAFF
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The practice has reception staff who will attempt to assist you in all aspects of appointments, or in any other ways to make your visits to the practice uncomplicated.
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The practice has three registered nurses who work between 8.00am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. They are available to assist you with any questions regarding wound care and general medical enquiries.
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The Practice Manager is available to assist you in any queries regarding accounts.
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The Practice Manager’s prime responsibility is to ensure the smooth running of the practice and to uphold Australian accreditation standards. The practice manager is available to assist you if you have any concerns regarding any aspects of the practice. The practice can often improve services with suggestions from patients so please let our friendly staff know of any concerns or suggestions.
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PARKING
We have a limited number of car parks. Cars transporting infirm patients can pull right up to the front door where they can be transferred to the surgery’s wheelchair. Just ask at the reception when booking an appointment if you wish to use this facility.
SMOKING POLICY
The Fraser Coast Medical Centre is a NO SMOKING zone, which includes the car park & the area directly outside the entrance doors. For those who need to have a cigarette, please do so outside of the practice premises. The health & comfort of all who come to our practice is of utmost importance & we appreciate your understanding and cooperation with this policy.
HOME VISITS/TELEPHONE ACCESS
Each doctor normally undertakes home visits that are pre-arranged on specific days of the week. Urgent visits are usually accommodated at lunchtime or the end of the day. Please be considerate in your requests for visits as these are very time consuming and take the doctors away from the surgery for long periods. So if you can make it to the surgery it would be appreciated. In an emergency please telephone for advice, as it may be that calling an ambulance would be more appropriate if hospital admission is likely. All doctors will return patient phone calls at their earliest convenience and a doctor will be available to speak to in an emergency.
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TRANSFERRING RECORDS TO ANOTHER PRACTICE
If you wish to have a copy or summary of your medical records transferred to another practice, your signed consent requesting such transfer must be received from another medical practitioner. For the transfer of an entire family’s records, signed consent must be obtained by each member over 16 years of age, in order to comply with privacy policy. Depending on the size and complexity of your file, a fee may be charged to you for copying, collating and sending the record on your behalf. Please note that your original record will be retained at Fraser Coast Medical Centre as required by law.
ZERO TOLERANCE OF UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR
For the safety and consideration of the staff and patients, any behaviour that is disrespectable, threatening, abusive, violent or aggressive will not tolerated. Any person conducting themselves in this way will be asked to leave the premises immediately. Non-compliance with such a request may result in police intervention. In circumstances where there is recurrent unacceptable behaviour, it is the practice policy to remove offenders from the patient list. An official letter from the Practice Principle Doctors will be issued advising that this behaviour will not be tolerated.
CONTACT VIA EMAIL
Communication via email is not the preferred method at FCMC. We urge all patients to carefully consider the issue of security before sending medical information via unencrypted email. The email account is only checked periodically throughout the day, therefore there is a risk that important clinical information sent to this address may be missed or not picked up, particularly time critical information. Email should never be used to contact the surgery in an emergency; we encourage patients to phone reception on 41241122.
FAILED APPOINTMENTS
If you are unable to attend a pre-booked appointment we ask that you contact the reception or cancel on HotDoc as soon as you are able as this enables your appointment to be given to another patient. Failing to attend an appointment, especially a long appointment, means that the doctor’s time has been lost and may have prevented another patient from being seen on that day. Practice policy is that patients who continually fail to attend will no longer be seen at this Surgery.
BILLING
The individual doctor determines the billing structure for their patients. DVA Gold Card holders are all currently bulk-billed for all services. Fees will be outlined by the receptionist to all new patients at the time of booking. A $50 non refundable fee for “no shows” for the initial appointment will be charged. All other payments can be by cash, cheque, credit card or EFTPOS. All non bulk-billed services must be paid for at the time of your consultation; no accounts are currently given. Please remember that if you are not in possession of an up- to- date Medicare card we cannot bulk bill you for the consultation so you will be charged full private fees.
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PATIENT RIGHTS
Patients are provided with sufficient information about the purpose, importance, benefits, risks and possible costs associated with proposed investigations, referrals or treatments to enable patients to make informed decisions about their health. Patients are provided with adequate information about our practice to facilitate access to care.
RECALLS/REMINDERS - National State Territory Registers
This practice participates in the National State Territory registry system (e.g Childhood Immunisation Register & Pap Smear Register). If you do not want this information sent to these registers, please discuss any concerns further with your Doctor at consultation. This information is routinely sent to these registers unless you consent to “opt out”. We also have a reminder system within the practice for follow-ups i.e Health Assessments. Please discuss with your Doctor at consultation if you wish to “opt out”.
AFTER HOURS ARRANGEMENTS
Please phone the normal surgery number 41241122 and you will hear a message telling you a number to phone to contact the doctor on call so please have a pen and paper ready. Alternatively you may be put directly through to the doctor’s home phone or mobile phones so do not hang up the phone if being redirected. Fees for the after hours service may vary between doctors.
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PRIVACY POLICY
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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. Consistent with our commitment to quality health care this practice has developed a policy to protect patient privacy in compliance with the national privacy legislation. Our policy informs you
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That we need your consent to collect information about you
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Why we need to collect your information
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How your information will be used by us and to whom we may need to disclose it
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That you may request access to the information we hold about you
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That you may discuss any concerns you have about how we handle your information
(Talk to your doctor for information or ask for a copy of our privacy policy pamphlet)
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TIS – Translating & Interpretor Services for non English speaking clients
NRS – National Relay Service for hearing & speech impairments
NABS – National Auslan Interpreter Booking & Payment Service