Telehealth during Covid-19 outbreak

How to Book Your Telehealth Appointment

The Australian Government has announced Medicare funding for patients to be able to access Telehealth consultation service in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic. At this stage these rebates will be available until March 2021.

The easiest way to book is to book online through our HotDoc online booking system. You can select Telehealth as your appointment type. If you are unsure how to use this, please feel free to call our reception on 02 9680 9644, or by clicking on the ‘Call Now’ button to the right.

How Much Will it Cost?

Your consult will be bulk-billed if:

• You are a child under the age of 5, or
• You hold a valid Pension Card, AND
• You have visited the practice at least once in the last 12 months

All other Telehealth consults will be privately billed at our standard rates, and patients may be eligible for a rebate for this service.

We remain focussed on providing accessible, high quality care for our patients. If COVID-19 has placed financial strain on you and your family, we encourage you to reach out for a confidential discussion with our practice manager so that we can consider alternative financial arrangements. You can do so by calling reception on 02 9680 9644.

How do I book my phone consult?

Just like other appointments, there are two ways to book a telephone consult.

1. Book via the HotDoc app, by clicking here. Remember to select ‘Telehealth – Phone’ as your appointment type.
2. Call reception on (02) 9680 9644.

If you are unsure whether you are eligible for a Medicare consult, we recommend booking via HotDoc, as they have a handy series of questions to guide you.

Ensure that you provide the correct phone number at time of booking, so that we can get in touch at the right time.

How do I prepare for my phone consult?

• Try to be prepared, with a short list of what you need to discuss. If you have booked a standard appointment, these are 15 minutes long. That gives us about 10-12 minutes to discuss your problem before we need to spend time writing notes, and ordering tests or prescriptions for you.
• At the time of your appointment, try and find somewhere quiet to sit where you can hear, and be heard. Please don’t try and talk to us on the car system, or on speakerphone.
• Wait for our call! Just like in real life, we are definitely going to run late sometimes. If we’re a few minutes late, please be patient. If we’re more than 15 minutes late, call the surgery and get our receptionists to check on things for you – a GP’s day rarely goes to plan and there are lots of reasons why we may be running late.
• If you need prescriptions, tests, or referrals to other health care professionals, we will send these on your behalf directly where they need to go.

At present (March 26th 2020), all of our GPs are available for telephone consults.