Communicating with your GP and our Practice
Telephone Consults
Depending on your specific health need, you may be eligible for a telephone consultation with your GP. Our staff will triage your call and if appropriate arrange your GP to call you back for a telehealth consultation which will be bulk-billed.
Not everything can be managed in a telehealth consultation and you may still be required to attend the practice for an appointment to ensure you receive the best an most appropriate care and management.
Unfortunately we are not able to provide telehealth services to anyone who has not had at least one face to face consultation in the last 12 months.
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**PLEASE NOTE** - Telephone consults are NO DIFFERENT to a regular consultation!
- They are not a way of obtaining an appointment quicker, they do not reduce the amount of time/work a doctor needs to do.
- Just like waiting for an appointment in the surgery, your doctor may be running early or late. Please keep your phone handy around your appointment time and don't panic unless it has been more than 1 hour since your scheduled appointment time.
- If you fail to answer your phone at the time the doctor calls you, you may miss out on your appointment and be required to reschedule.
General policy on telephone calls with your doctor:
Most problems are better dealt with in a consultation however there are times when you may need to speak with your doctor. The doctors try and make themselves available for emergency advice however this is often interrupting another patient’s consultation time so you will be encouraged to make a telephone appointment at the doctors next available appointment slot or you may be asked to leave a message.
Reception staff have been advised by the doctors and are experienced in helping you to decide whether a matter requires an appointment, a return phone call or urgent immediate attention.
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Rest assured that any message you leave for your doctor is passed on immediately.
All messages are recorded on carbon copy note pads, or sent via electronic messaging system so there is a record. Any paper messages are then placed immediately in the doctor’s pigeon hole. If you find you have not heard anything back you are better off making an appointment, than making further phone attempts!
Reception staff take no responsibility for messages left—once passed on it is out of their hands and it is up to the doctor to follow up these messages in their own time (of which they have very little).
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A guaranteed way of getting a response from a doctor is to make an appointment with them!!
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Using email as a communication method for non-urgent correspondence is a practical and useful way for us to handle your enquiries as you don't necessarily need to make your enquiry during telephone business hours.
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All email requests are actioned on the same day during business hours however depending on the nature of your request it may be longer before you receive a reply. The use of email communication is best for general enquiries, in most circumstances any medical enquiries will require an appointment.
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By contacting us via email you are acknowledging that any information passed between your email address and reception@cardiffgp.com.au is sent via an unencrypted network and are consenting to this method of communication.
Cardiff General Practice puts the security of the client at a high priority. Therefore, we have put efforts into ensuring that the message is error and virus-free. Unfortunately, full security of the email cannot be ensured as, despite our efforts, the data included in emails could be infected, intercepted, or corrupted. Therefore, the recipient should check the email for threats with proper software, as the sender does not accept liability for any damage inflicted by viewing the content of this email.
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Messages can occassionally and randomly be blocked by our firewall and end up in spam folders or email quarantine. If you have not recieved a response please follow-up with a phone call.
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Social Media
Please do not contact us via our Facebook page. This business page is intended for us to post information or updates on the practices operating hours, services provdied, general health alerts and information, current status of communication problems (eg telephone lines down, power outtage). This page is not regularly monitored for comments or messenger messages.
Please call or email us.
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