COVID-19—Please see our Book Appt page for important information about booking an appointment during the current Covid-19 pandemic
Making an Appointment
Inverloch Healthcare offers a flexible appointment system to allow us to care for a range of urgent, non-urgent, complex and health maintenance needs.
Appointments can be made online via our website, by phone or in person.
We are committed to continuity of care and where possible will offer you an appointment with the GP of your choice. If this is not possible our staff will recommend an alternative GP.
Our standard appointments are 10-15 minutes and in this time we can usually deal with one to two issues.
If you feel you may require a longer appointment please let us know at the time of booking.
If you require an urgent appointment, please let our reception staff know and you will be directed to our practice nurse.
Dr Martin Hodgson is currently accepting new patients.
Dr Hana Thompson has now closed her books (August 2023) and our other GP’s are not currently accepting new patients. This will continue to be reviewed regularly.
Prior to your appointment we would request you complete our new patient registration form and new patient health information form.
Please download and complete prior to attending or please attend five minutes early for your appointment and reception will provide you will a copy to complete.
Fees
Inverloch Healthcare is not a bulk billing practice. We continue to be grateful for the support and trust you have placed in us to care for you and your family. In order to continue this high-quality care, from 1st May 2023 Inverloch Healthcare will no longer be bulk billing concession card holders or children fifteen years and under and our fees for longer consultations are increasing.
Why can’t we continue to bulk bill? The reason behind this decision relates to the “rebate” also known as the MBS (Medicare Benefits Scheme). The MBS is a list of items that our Federal Government pay a rebate for to assist patients with the cost of their medical services. Medicare rebates do not, and were never intended to, cover the full cost of medical services. When a patient is bulk billed the practice receives only the rebate from the government for the service the GP has provided.
The costs of running our private business continue to rise, and your patient Medicare Rebate now represents about half of the full cost of your GP care. We would encourage you to discuss any concerns you have about your Medicare Rebate with your Federal Member of Parliament.
To assist in offsetting your costs, we encourage all our patients to register for the Medicare Safety Net. This can help to lower your out-of-pocket costs once you have reached your Safety Net threshold. For more information, please refer to https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/medicare-safety-nets
What this means for you
If you are an aged pensioner over the age of 70, hold a disability support pension or are 15 years or younger you will no longer be bulk billed for your consultations.
We will continue to bulk bill Department of Veterans Affairs card holders. We will also continue to bulk bill GP Management Plans, over 75-year-old health assessment and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessments.
For those patients holding an Australian Government Health Care card, an Australian Government Pensioner Concession Card, Disability Support Pension of aged 15 and under the following will apply from 1st July 2023:
Standard consultation fee - $76.20 paid on the day with $41.20 refunded by Medicare ($35 gap)
Longer consultation fee - $139.70 paid on the day with $79.70 refunded by Medicare ($60 gap)
It is our continued policy that all accounts are to be paid on the day of service. Accounts not paid on the day will incur a late fee of $27.50 which is not rebatable.
Inverloch Healthcare continues to be committed to providing the highest quality care to our community. We thank you for your understanding and please feel free to talk with your GP or our practice manager if you have any questions about the cost of providing services to you.
All new patients, including children, DSP, aged pension and DVA card holders will be privately billed on their first appointment and will incur a $100 out of pocket cost depending on consultation length.
Casual patients ( visitors to the area/on holidays who have a regular GP elsewhere) will incur a $75 out of pocket cost on a standard consultation.
Consultation fees are outlined below with changes for HCC holder effective as of the 1st July 2023 . All fees are reviewed on an regular basis.
CONSULTATION (face to face)
Standard (Item 23)
15 mins appt- usually one issue
Long (Item 36) - 2 issues
25-30 mins appt
Extended (item 44)
45 mins
FEE
$91.20 Private
$76.20 HCC holder /Child
$116.20 Casual Patient
$169.70 Private
$139.70 HCC/Child
$179.70 New patient
$262.40 Private
$212.40 HCC / Child
MEDICARE REBATE
$41.20
$79.70
$117.40
OUT OF POCKET COST
$50
$35 HCC/ Child
$75 casual patient
$90
$60 HCC/ Child
$100 New Patient
$145 Private
$95 HCC/ Child
Some services may involve extra charges and will not be bulk billed. These include some minor surgical procedures, wound dressings, fracture treatments and Implanon insertion/removal. The cost of procedures varies depending upon the type, complexity and materials involved. Please speak to our doctors or receptionists to provide an accurate estimate of costs.
Referrals
An appointment is required for all referrals. Your GP cannot provide backdated referrals.
Results
An appointment is required to discuss results unless by prior agreement with your doctor. Your treating GP will advise you of how your results will be made available to you. Our practice nurse plays an important role in communication of this information after your results have been checked by your GP.
Non-Attendance
If you are unable to keep a scheduled appointment we ask that you please phone or email to cancel as soon as possible. Failing to attend or late cancellation may incur a fee.
Communicating with you and listening to your feedback.
While we love keeping you informed of what we are up to, our practice does not respond to social media posts on its Facebook page. It is our policy not to respond to email requests for appointments or personal information. Our Clinical Team will communicate personal information via secure email if consent is provided to do so.
Doctors will not take telephone calls from patients while consulting. In some cases the receptionist or nursing staff may be able to assist with your enquiry. Telephone messages may be left with reception staff to the attention of the Doctor and will be dealt with as soon as practicable.
Thank you for your feedback through our recent survey. It was great to receive your suggestions on how we can improve our services. This is what you would like to see improve;
Doctors running late- This is a challenge for all of our doctors at times and we all understand how frustrating this can be. Please make a longer appointment if you have a number of issues to discuss. Keep our doctors on time by making a list of your issues and prioritising which of these is most important. Our reception staff will notify you if your doctor is running late and keep you updated of wait times as accurately as possible while you are waiting.
Getting an appointment time that suits you - We try hard to ensure we can get you an appointment time as close to your request as possible but admit this can be difficult at times of high demand. We suggest that,if possible, you book ahead for non urgent matters. We have a cancellation list for each of our doctors and if the matter is urgent please ask to speak with our nurse. You can also keep an eye on on hotdoc for an appointment which may suit your time schedule.
Help I need an appointment now! We have a number of appointments allocated each day for those needing to be seen urgently. Our nurse will triage and book these however these may not be with your ususal doctor. PLEASE let our staff know if you feel you need a more urgent appointment.
In cases of a medical emergency please call 000
For medical advice please contact nurse on call – 1300 606 024
Health Access -1800 272 767 telehealth afterhours GP care. (free service funded through Gippsland PHN) Operating from 6-10pm weeknights, 12-10pm Saturdays and 8am-6pm Sundays and public holidays. GPHN after hours services
For urgent emergeny medical care please contact either
Bass Coast Health Wonthaggi, 235 Graham St, Wonthaggi, 5671 3333
Leongatha Hospital Urgent Care, Koonwarra Rd, Leongatha, 5667 5555.
After-Hours Medical Care
Your privacy is a high priority at Inverloch Healthcare. It is our policy to maintain the security of personal health information. We abide by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 and the Victorian Health Records Act (2001).