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07 4125 2422
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Hervey Bay Doctors was previously known as Torquay Doctors and opened to service the local community on 1 July 2019. We have surgeries at both Pialba and Craignish.
Our new Pialba surgery has been purpose built and will help us deliver better multidisciplinary care, working closely with local health providers to improve community wellbeing. Our Craignish surgery has two consultation rooms, a substantial treatment room and additional nurse room. We have twelve doctors and each of them have interests that cover varying sub-specialities of medicine.
Our reception staff make every effort to accommodate your preferred time for an appointment. Emergencies will be always be given priority. Our reception staff will always try to contact you if there are any changes for an emergency.
We do offer longer consultations and if you need some extra time with the doctor, please advise our reception staff and they will try to accommodate your needs. Any person who presents at our surgery without an appointment is triaged and every effort is made to offer an appointment.
We are always happy to welcome new patients to the practice. Please download and complete our New Patient Form and return to reception@torquaydoctors.com.au.
If you would like your medical history transferred from your previous GP to Torquay Doctors and Craignish Doctors please download and complete our Request to Transfer Medical Records Form and return to reception@hbdoctors.com.au
If English is not your first language, don’t be afraid to ask for a translator. We find professional translators better than family or friends. All GPs have access to the ‘Translating and Interpreting Service’ to obtain a translator over the phone.
If you let the reception team know ahead of time it can be organised for your GP appointment.
As required under the Privacy Act 2009 all patient information is strictly confidential. 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 our practices, we are keen to know about it. We have a Suggestions/Feedback Box at the front counter of each of our clinics for this purpose. Please feel free to talk to the doctor, Office Manager or Practice Manager. If you prefer anonymity, please feel free to contact us either by mail or email.
We take all feedback seriously and any issue/complaint that is made regarding any aspect of your service or care is dealt with within the practice. However, if there is a problem you wish to take up outside the practice, you may prefer to contact the Queensland Government Centre for handling complaints.
The address for this contact is:-
Office of the Health Ombudsman
PO Box 13281
George Street Q 4001
Phone: 133 646
www.oho.qld.gov.au
Across our two clinics we have experienced reception staff who will attempt to assist you in all aspects of appointments or in any other way to make your visits to the practice pleasant.
We have highly skilled nurses who work across both clinics. During opening hours we always ensure that we at least one nurse available. They are here to assist you with any questions regarding wound care, general medical enquiries and women’s health issues.
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 aspects of our clinics and is available to assist you with any queries you may have.
For the safety and consideration of our staff and patients, we will not tolerate any behaviour that is threatening, abusive, violent or aggressive.
Any person conducting themselves in this manner will be asked to leave the premises immediately. Non-compliance with such a request will result in Police intervention.
In circumstances where there is recurrent unacceptable behaviour, it is our policy to remove offenders from our patient list.
To ensure that you receive effective communication from our clinic it is important that patients notify our reception staff of any change in their address and contact phone numbers. Additionally, it is important to keep our staff updated with any changed to your Medicare Card and Health Care Card/Pension Card details.
Hervey Bay Doctors and Craignish Doctors are proud to be Accredited General Practices. What this means is that our practices have passed an stringent assessment of AGPAL (Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited) in achieving the standard of excellence in General Practice. This is an ongoing process with re-accreditation every 3 years.
It is the policy of our clinics that drugs of dependence (including Schedule 8 Controlled drugs and certain sedatives) will not be prescribed to new patients at their first appointment. These medications have strict legislative controls regarding their use and they are illegal to prescribed without a valid Government issued permit.
Hervey Bay Doctors and Craignish Doctors use a computer based medical record system that interacts with the Australian My Health Record.
Patients can elect to have a personally controlled, password-protected electronic health record created that can include a medication list, allergy list, medical condition list, immunisation history and prescription record.
Having a My Health Record means that, with the patient’s permission, other doctors and hospitals within Australia can see important medical information about a patient, improving safety and continuity of treatment. This is ideal for those with complex medical care.
Please speak with your doctor if you are interested in registering for a My Health Record.
Communication via email is not the preferred method at our clinics. We urge all patient to carefully consider the issue of security before sending medical information via unencrypted email. Email should never be used to contact the surgery in an emergency as we encourage patient to phone reception on 07 4125 2422.
Hervey Bay Doctors and Craignish Doctors are NOT bulk-billing practices. DVA Gold Card holders are all currently bulk-billed for all services.
Private fees are currently set at AMA rates. Doctors’ fees are displayed in the waiting room and can be obtained at the reception desk. Fees will be outlined by the receptionist to all new patients booking by phone.
Payment can be made by cash or EFTPOS (debit and credit cards). All non bulk-billed services must be paid for at the time of your consultation. No accounts are given under any circumstances.
Please remember that if you are not in possession of an up-to-date Medicare card, we cannot bulk bill you (if this is the case) for the consultation so you will be charged full private fees.
Our surgeries offer a wide range of facilities including all skin checks, child and adult vaccinations, cervical screening, all health checks, blood glucose monitoring, minor operations, electrocardiography and spirometry. We comply fully with the strict sterilisation standards as set by the RACGP and our Accreditation providers, AGPAL.
Your medical record is a confidential. It is the policy of our 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:
If you are unable to attend a pre-booked appointment we ask that you contact reception as soon as you are able as this allows your appointment to be given to another patient in need. Failing to attend an appointment, especially an extended 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 any of our clinics.
For urgent medical attention outside our advertised hours please call 000 or go to the Emergency Department at Hervey Bay Hospital.
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 our privacy policy. Depending on the size and complexity of your file, a fee may be charged to you for copying, collating and sending the records on your behalf.
PLEASE NOTE that your original records will be retained by Hervey Bay Doctors as required by law.
Patients are provided with sufficient information about the purpose, importance, benefits, risks and possible costs associated with proposed investigations, referral or treatments to enable patients to make informed decisions about their health. Patient are provided with adequate information about our practice to facilitate access to care.
Our practice has a recall system so that if you have been requested by your doctor to have blood test or radiology screens, then if the doctor would like a follow-up appointment to discuss the results with you, you will be contacted either by SMS or telephone to book that appointment.
Our reminder system works in a similar way whereby you are contacted by either SMS or letter to advise that you are due to follow up with your preventative care and you are then invited to make an appointment for that purpose.