Coronavirus Update - 16/11/20

COVID Outbreak

Given the current COVID outbreak in SA, we are encouraging our patients to book in for Telehealth consults where it is appropriate to do so. 

We would like to thank all our patients who assist us in managing our patients who may be infectious:

  • If you have cold or flu-like symptoms including a fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, fatigue and shortness of breath we ask you to please not enter our practices.
  • If you have been to any COVID Hotspots or to areas of concern in the past 14 days, we ask you to please not enter our practices.
  • If you have been in contact with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID, we ask you to please not enter our practices.
  • If you believe you have a runny nose due to hayfever, at this time we ask you to please not enter our practices.
  • Whilst we are still declared to be in this pandemic, our current practice is to not assess any potentially infectious patients with a respiratory illness inside our practices. We will assist our patients with respiratory illnesses via Telehealth and car-park consultations, and in some instances by referral to GP-Led Respiratory Clinics. In the first instance, you will receive a phone consult with your doctor or another doctor at our practice to determine the appropriate actions to be taken. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please hang up now and dial 000 immediately.

To find out where the COVID Hotspots are, click SA Health’s Contact Tracing Page link below:

 
 
Information about Telehealth Appointments
 
We offer Telehealth appointments to all of our patients. We will book a time with your doctor and they will call you for a phone consult. As of the 1st of October 2020, Medicare has changed its requirements and its rebates to GPs for Telehealth consults. Bulk-billing for Telehealth consults is no longer a requirement and this will mean that there may be a fee for your Telehealth or Phone consult. For more information about our fees please visit our website or speak to one of our reception team.

As of the 20th of July, if you have not been seen by a GP at one of our practices in the last 12 months, Medicare will no longer provide a rebate for GP Telehealth services. If you pass our screening, you will be required to attend our practices in person for your consult. Alternatively, you may choose to have a Telehealth consult, but you will be required to pay for the consult in full, and you will not receive a rebate from Medicare. A reminder that this is only relevant for patients that have not been seen by a GP at one of our practices in the last 12 months.

At this time, where it is appropriate to do so, we will continue to look after our patients via Telehealth. This includes the follow-up of test results. To receive your test results, please call us and our reception team will make a time for your doctor to call you to discuss your results further. For patients wanting to attend our practices for face-to-face consults, you will be screened by our reception staff at the time of your booking to ensure that it will be acceptable for you to attend in person. Please note that there may be a fee for your Telehealth or Phone consult. For more information about our fees please visit our website or speak to one of our reception team.

 

Our COVID Precautions

We continue to take your health and the health of all our patients seriously. We have implemented a number of changes at our practices to ensure we do all that we can to reduce the spread of diseases at our practices.

  • When you arrive at our practices, we encourage you to please use our hand sanitiser that is provided at our entrances.
  • When you approach our reception counter, we ask you to please stand on a yellow cross behind our screens.
  • In order to maintain social distancing, we have limited the number of chairs in our waiting rooms. To help us keep our waiting rooms safe:
  •      We ask you to please not come into our practices more than 5 minutes earlier than your appointment time. If you do arrive significantly early, or our waiting room is at capacity, we will ask you to please return to your car or wait outside.
  •      We have placed chairs outside for patients who would prefer to wait outside. Alternatively, if you would prefer to wait in your car for your doctor, we will be more than happy to facilitate this for you, you will just need to give us a call when you arrive in the carpark.
  •      We are asking our patients where possible to please attend their appointments by themselves to keep the number of patients in our waiting rooms down.
  • We are asking all patients to pay via card where possible.  For patients that would like to pay with cash, at this time we ask that you have the correct amount for us to limit cash handling.
  • You can book a telehealth appointment with your doctor using our online bookings on our website or our App. Instructions about Telehealth appointment bookings can be found on our website.

For more information about Coronavirus, please click on the link below which will take you to Australia’s current Coronavirus (COVID-19) health alert:

https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert

We thank you for your assistance in trying to keep you, all of our patients and our team safe during this time