If you don’t have Medicare or are uncertain of your eligibility for bulk billing, please contact the clinic for fee information.

Payment of fees is required at the time of consultation.

Please inform us at least 24 hours prior to your appointment if you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, to avoid a fee. This allows us to offer the appointment slot to other patients who may have a need for our care. The cancellation fee is the total cost of the booked appointment.

Our time, as is yours, is very valuable and if you fail to show up for an appointment, a cancellation fee for the total cost of the booked appointment will apply.

New Patients Form
New patients who have not been seen at this practice before can print this form, once completed it should be brought along to you initial appointment

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS OUR DOWNLOADABLE FORMS.

Records Transfer Request Form
The records transfer request form is for those patients wanting to have their past medical records sent through to our surgery. This can be helpful for you doctor to look over past medical history and medications to help with any current conditions. Once completed it can be given to our receptionists who will fax it through to your previous doctor.

Our Privacy Policy is as follows:

You have chosen to attend our Practice. To properly attend to your care we will need information from you that may be of a personal nature. Tintenbar Medical Centre respects your right to privacy, and this brochure has been prepared to advise you of how we deal with the information we collect about you. If you would like to know more, please feel free to discuss our Privacy Policy with our staff.

In December 2001 the Privacy Act became effective, requiring that we have your consent to collect your personal information.

What information about you do we collect?

At your first visit, we will commence a medical file for you. We will need to know:

• Your full name
• Date of Birth
• Address
• Telephone numbers
• Medicare Number
• Concession card number (if you are a concession card holder)
• Next of Kin and Emergency Contact name and numbers
• Health Care Fund
• Cultural background
• Occupation

During the consultation the doctor will ask a series of questions relating to your health and wellbeing. This information will be recorded to assist in your continuing care.

What do we do with the information we collect?

All information is placed into your patient file and is only accessed when necessary for your care. We may need to disclose your personal information to others involved in your health care, including specialists, allied health providers and diagnostic providers. This will include referral, reports and results to those providers. In an urgent situation, you may be unable to give consent, but we may still need to provide this information.

Your information may be accessed for research and quality assurance purposes, to improve individual and community health care. This may occur during the accreditation process. In some situations your information may need to be provided to government agencies under particular laws.
If you do not want your information used for any purpose other than that what you have come to us for, you must let us know.

The Practice takes care to avoid inadvertent disclosure of personal information, eg:

• Patients ringing for results are identified appropriately eg asking birth date.
• Follow-up reminders have envelopes marked “private and confidential”.
• Appointment books and patient files are not visible to other patients.
• Computer screens in consulting rooms are cleared prior to the next patient.

The Practice takes steps to protect the personal information it collects from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. A system exists to back-up all computerised personal health records. Your consent is required when transferring files to another Practice. Your new doctor will arrange this with you. Yours records are kept for a minimum of 7 years after your last attendance or up to the age of 25 years for a child who has attended our clinic.

Prior to a patient signing consent to the release of their health information, patients are made aware they can request a full copy of our privacy policy and collection statement.

Patient consent for the transfer of health information to other providers or agencies is obtained on the first visit.

Once signed, this form is scanned into the patient’s record and its completion noted. Note: Consent for transfer of information differs from procedural consent.

The Procedure for Patients to Gain Access to their Own Health Information on Request

Patients are able to access their own health information on request by filling out Request for Personal Health Information form available at reception.

Our Communication Policy is as Follows:

Communication by phone calls :

Our practice endeavors to provide patients with access to timely advice or information about their clinical care via the telephone. The urgency of a patients needs are determined promptly. We aim to communicate effectively over the telephone and use simple, straight forward language and check that patients have understood what has been said.
Electronic communication provides a useful and alternative point of access for our patients. Our patients are informed of the risks associated with some methods of electronic communications and that their privacy and confidentiality may be compromised. Patients must agree via signing patient consent. Our practice adheres to the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the Privacy Act 1988, Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). The practice may become liable for the contents of any email message under certain circumstances and therefore an email disclaimer is inserted into the signature of all practice emails. Emails between the practice and the patient, including any action taken in response to the message/s are included in the patient’s medical record. Our Practice uses Fax as its main communication tool.
Our practice aims to ensure all patient emails or other communications that require subsequent follow-up by a doctor or other staff member are responded to in a timely manner.
Our aim is to facilitate optimal communication opportunities with our patients. Patients who do not speak or read English or who are more proficient in another language, or who have special communication needs are offered the choice of using the assistance of a language service to communicate with the GPs or clinical team members.
Our practice encourages and supports the use of digital technology to enable our patient with 24-hour access to our appointment system. Our practice allows patients to book their healthcare appointment with their preferred healthcare provider online via the booking page on our website or direct with HotDoc. In non urgent situations, patient calls need not interrupt consultations with other patients, but a message containing the information is given to the person in a timely manner

Communicating by electronic means

Our practice email account for patients and stakeholders for communication with our practice is
reception@tintmed.com.au Only appropriate non-clinical matters are dealt with via email exchanges.
No consulting or advice services are conducted by email. This must be communicated face to face by a medical
practitioner or other appropriate health professional unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Our email account will be routinely checked throughout the business day by the Receptionist. Email messages are forwarded to the appropriate team member for response within 24 hours.
Our practice uses SMS messaging to remind patients of their upcoming appointments. There is no medical or identifying information used in these messages. It is the patient’s responsibility to contact the practice and respond to the message.

Communicating with patients with special needs:

A contact list of translator and interpreter services and services for patients with a disability is maintained, updated
regularly and readily available to all staff at reception. These include:
• National Relay Service (NRS) found here
• Auslan services 1300 AUSLAN
• Translation and Interpreter Service (TIS) Doctors Priority Line 1300 131 450