THIS BROCHURE OUTLINES THE POLICIES OF THE PRACTICE.
Our practice is committed to providing its patients with the full range of general practice
services and is staffed and equipped accordingly.

OUR MISSION
At Alma Street Medical, we aim to provide quality, accessible primary healthcare for the
whole family and strive towards continuous improvement of the physical and
psychological well- being of any/all of our patients.

OUR PRACTICE VALUES
We are patient-focused;
We are dedicated and diligent in carrying out our duties;
We are professional, friendly, positive, and approachable;
We focus on achieving the right outcomes;
We are committed to quality services and continuous improvement.

OUR TEAM
Our Surgery has 6 Male and 5 Female Doctors

Practice Manager: Bernie
Receptionists: Vanessa, Kueni, Serena, Catherine, Alex
Nurses: Alisha, Amber, Katrina, Casey, Kirsty, Kyah

NEW PATIENTS
We welcome all new patients to our practice. Please be aware that you may need to request
your records to be transferred from your previous practice to ensure your continuing care.
Organising this in advance can greatly assist the process for your first appointment. You will
also need to complete a New Patient Details Form to ensure that we have all the necessary
details on file. Allow an additional 5 – 8 minutes to complete the form upon arrival for your
first appointment.

APPOINTMENTS
Appointments are usually in 10-minute increments. If you require extra time, please
request an extended appointment when making your booking. We advise that you ring
ahead for any delays in appointment times. Please also advise the receptionists if more than
one person in your family needs to be seen, as a separate appointment is required for each
individual patient. Walk-in patients will be triaged depending on the medical condition and
doctor availability. Complete medical check-ups, insurance and Pre-employment Medicals
often require a longer than normal consultation, we strongly recommend that you ring to
make an appointment. Surgical procedures, Health Assessments and any paperwork will
also require longer than normal consultations. Please inform reception when making
your booking.

HELP US TO HELP YOU
Please be clear and concise when making an appointment by indicating to the receptionist
the urgency of your problem:

1. If it is an emergency in need of immediate attention
2. If urgent and needs attention on the same day
3. If a routine visit such as a check-up/repeat of medication/review of
results/vaccination /PAP smear/ Care Plan/wound dressing/Medication
review/specialist referral /Efudix Review
4. Please indicate if the appointment is for an Insurance Medical, Driver Licence
Medical (commercial or not) or a surgical procedure so that the appropriate time
can be allocated.

ONLINE BOOKINGS
You can now access available appointment times for most Doctors via Hotdoc from the
comfort of your home or smart phone. Online booking is a 24/7 service that gives you the
flexibility to book an apportionment from anywhere, any time.

FEES
Fees vary according to the nature of the consultation, the length of the consultation or the
procedure performed. Aged Pensioners and Health Care Card Holders can be offered a
discounted fee- at the discretion of the treating doctor. Credit card and EFTPOS facilities
are available. To be able to continue our excellent services to our patients, we have to charge
fees which are often more than the current Medicare Rebate fees.

URGENT AFTER-HOURS MEDICAL CARE
Please call House Call Doctors in the first instance on 13 55 66. Alternatively, present at the
Emergency Department of the Rockhampton Hospital in Canning Street. Or if you prefer to
present at the Mater Emergency department between 6am and 11pm. For any urgent
medical attention (like chest pain, sudden severe breathlessness, collapse, blackouts,
seizures, serious injuries), please call 000.

REMINDER SYSTEM
Our Practice is committed to preventative care. We have a daily and weekly recall/reminder
system (National State Reminder). Your doctor will seek your permission to be included on
this reminder system. You will receive recall/reminder letters (or a phone call in some
instances) regarding blood tests, pap smears and any other preventative health services. If
you do not wish to be included in the reminder, system please let us know.

TELEPHONE ACCESS
On most occasions, doctors will not take patient calls during consultations. A message will
be taken and given to the doctor, or you may request to speak to a nurse.

REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS
Repeat prescriptions will only be issued at the doctors’ discretion for certain patients and
under certain conditions, (these include Nursing Home patients, patients that live out of town and patients that are not mobile enough to attend the surgery). Antibiotics cannot be prescribed without consultation and diagnosis. There is a non-Medicare refundable charge
for prescriptions that are required in this manner.

GENERAL ENQUIRIES AND TEST RESULTS
It is recommended you make an appointment with your doctor to discuss any Blood results,
Scans/X-rays or Urine Tests. If for some reason you are unable to make it to the surgery you
may ask to speak with a nurse between 11 am and 3 pm who can let you know whether or
not the Doctor needs to see you.

MANAGEMENT OF YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION
Your medical records are private and confidential documents. It is the policy of our Practice
to maintain security of personal health information at all times. To ensure that this
information is only available to authorised members of staff, we abide by the thirteen
Australian Privacy principles available at: http://www.privacy.gov.au/health/index.html.
We require written consent from a patient for a family member or friend to collect any
prescriptions, pathology forms, results, imaging requests or referrals on their behalf.

KEEP US UP TO DATE
We kindly ask all our patients to assist us in maintaining accurate and up-to-date records.
To ensure that we always have the correct details on file if we need to reach you on the
phone or mail documents out to you, please let us know as soon as you've changed any of
your contact details.

TRANSFER OF RECORDS
If you ever decide to move on from our practice to another, you will need to complete a
form providing us with written authorisation and pay for transfer of records fees before we
can transfer your records to your new practice. Please read the form carefully as it contains
information about our policy, time frames and fees.

ZERO TOLERANCE
We do not tolerate any violent or abusive behaviour and will have no hesitation to contact
our security personnel should there be an inappropriate disturbance on our premises that
poses a risk to the health and safety of our staff or other patients.

FEEDBACK
We actively seek new ways to improve the quality of our health care service to all our
patients. We value integrity, credibility, and respect for the individual. If you are dissatisfied
with any aspect of care received, please complete the patient feedback form on our website
under Contact Us. Alternately, you can complete the form at reception, and we will respond
to your query as soon as possible we take all feedback seriously. If you are still unhappy
with the outcome then formal representation can be made to:


General enquiries
For general enquiries or questions (not health service complaints) email info@oho.qld.gov.au.
133 OHO (133 646) Office of the Health Ombudsman