Important Information for Patients
Monday to Friday 8:00am – 6:00pm
Saturday and Sunday 9:00am – 1:00pm
Our aim is to assist the doctors in providing the most affordable and efficient medical service to their patients whilst consulting at Firle Medical Centre, and aid them in exceeding standard levels of care. To achieve this the doctors partner with our nurses to minimise waiting times and maximise bulk billing opportunities for the doctors.
The doctors and allied health team at Firle Medical Centre bill independently and charge a gap for consultations and procedures.
Payment will be due in full on the day and non-attendance fees will be enforced.
Please note, due to doctor independence, not all the doctors follow the guidelines below.
Please see the individual doctor page for their specific fees and guidance by clicking here
Any variation to the above is at the discretion of the doctor.- See the individual doctor page.
Specialised clinics e.g. Specialists, psychologists other allied health providers, and special procedures (Mirena and iron infusions). May charge higher gaps. Please ask reception.
Work-cover and Motor vehicle accident consultations are to be paid in full on the day until you have a claim number. Fees vary with average fees being around $170.
Call 83320424, book online or use our app called ‘My GP clinic’. After hours our phone diverts to the national home doctor service.
* Long appointments are encouraged if you have a list of problems.
* Walk-in appointments are available for unplanned problems.
Note: only one problem can be dealt with for walk-in appointments.
Attendance with your regular GP is recommended for centrelink or workcover matters, prescription of drugs of dependence and care plans.
Home visits are available by prior arrangement.
Your doctor will advise when they expect results to arrive at the practice. An appointment is required for the discussion of results. Reminders may be sent to you at the direction of the GP to attend for certain recall reasons. Telephone messages can be left with reception staff and doctors will respond directly or through The Gp Liaison nurse. Queries can be emailed to her by pressing “Message my GP”.
In line with our commitment to provide our patients with the highest quality medical facility that exceeds the RACGP standards, we introduce automatic temperature sensing stations.
The temperature testing station identifies high-risk individuals and makes our waiting room safer for all patients. Additionally, it replaces usual security surveillance systems that are found in all places of business and public spaces. No data can be accessed by, or is shared with any third party as per our privacy guidelines.
How do we protect people in the waiting room.
COVID-19 has necessitated a review of people movement in businesses and public places. With the intention of providing a premium medical service, Firle Medical Centre has always lead during this period. We provided Adelaide’s only private drive-through testing clinic ensuring our patients were not inconvenienced by long waits and long drives for COVID-19 testing. We also provide Adelaide’s only private cough clinic exclusively for our patients so that they can be treated by their own doctor within the security of a negative pressure examination room.
The temperature testing stations enable us to review which patients were in close contact with the person with a fever and alert them. Currently there is no definitive treatment for COVID-19 however other illnesses that produce fever have treatments such as influenza, whooping cough and pneumonia. This will enable any close contact to get early treatment and minimise the spread in the community
Social distancing.
You may notice that some chairs are blocked so that people sit appropriately apart. The provision of telephone appointments has meant that we are able to suspend our walk-in service which minimises a number of unexpected visits to the waiting room.
Cleaning / disinfection
A contact-less hand dispenser for alcohol rub is available at the entry and a pump action dispenser is available on the waiting room wall upon exit. Face masks are provided from our hygiene station for people who wish to use them. Throughout the day we have a chair disinfecting program, the frequency of which changes as the risk changes.
Children’s play stations have wiping stations attached to them for parents to pre-sanitise.
Movement of sick/high risk people
To avoid the spread of viruses we aim to identify all coughs and have those patients seen in a private area avoiding the general waiting room. This room has been adapted to be a negative pressure room so that any viruses will be extracted from the room and is cleaned between patients. This way patients with a cough will not be sitting in the waiting room with healthier people.
Unfortunately not all sick people cough and therefore our fever identification stations will give us an opportunity to identify people without a cough who are high-risk and ask them to be reviewed as part of our cough clinic keeping the waiting room safer.
Read our “Why do some doctors run late” PDF here.
If you have a problem or complaint we would like to hear about it. Please feel free to talk to your doctor or the receptionist. You may prefer to write to us or email firlmedical@gmail.com. We take your concerns, suggestions and complaints seriously and will personally respond. Alternatively, you can contact The SA Health & Community Services Complaints Commission
Toll free 1800 232 077 Website: www.hscss.sa.gov.au
Your medical record is a confidential document that is password protected. It is the policy of this practice to maintain the security of personal health information at all times and to ensure that this information is only available to authorised members of staff. Reception and nursing staff have limited access to your records deliberately to avoid accidental disclosure.
We abide by the 10 National Privacy Principles available at www.privacy.gov.au/health/index.html. I will send our privacy policy to continue with or reference to.