You will need to obtain a referral from your general practitioner in order to make an appointment with Child and adolescent psychiatrists. 

Referrals can be emailed to the practice. Upon receiving your referral, reception staff will contact you to organise an appointment. Please feel free to contact us at any time to ascertain the progress of your referral.

In the case of children and young people, assessment and treatment usually involves the primary caregivers/ parents. A very important part of a child’s life experience is their environment and we have found that including this environment (and the people who form part of it) in the treatment process often attains the best outcomes for children and their families.

Hence, in order to facilitate the above process, we may require a referral for both a parent and child. We are more than happy to discuss this further when organising your initial appointment.

Referral information for Practitioners

To make a referral, please download and fill out our referral document, and email it to our practice at reception@edgehillclinic.com.au

Please remember to bring;

• Your doctor’s referral (It is important to ensure we receive your referrals, as this enables you to claim a refund from Medicare for part of your family’s expense for seeing our doctors and psychologists. Please be aware that we may require separate referrals for both parent / caregiver and child (under 18 years).

• Medicare / private health fund details

• If you or your child are already taking medication, it might be helpful to bring them along

• Any previous letters or correspondence (about you or your child), school reports, assessments by previous doctors or health professionals.

The first appointment usually lasts for about 45 to 60 minutes. Further information on how an individual practitioner, within the practice, structures patient appointments is available by contacting the practice directly.

When assessing and treating children, it is common for parents / primary caregivers to attend the initial appointment alone. This allows time for gathering important background history, without causing undue frustration. Therefore in order to facilitate this, we may require a valid referral for both parent / caregiver and child (under 18 years).

Subsequently, your child is seen at a second scheduled appointment, for about 45 to 60 minutes. You and your child will usually receive feedback at the end of these sessions about what the problems may be, and what might be done about them.

Certainly, if you and your child have a lot to talk about, or have a lot of questions to ask, it may help to jot them down before the first (or any subsequent) appointments and bring them along.

VIOLENCE & AGRESSION POLICY

Patients are expected to respect and adhere strictly to our zero tolerance to violence and aggression policy. Hence, patients can expect to be discharged from the care of their treating clinician if they threaten or use abusive behaviour toward any member of staff.

A zero tolerance policy towards violence and aggression is expected here at Eton Place. No member of staff should be subjected to violent, threatening and abusive behaviour. Eton Place employees have the right to work and carry out their duties in an environment free from violence, threatening or abusive behaviour.

Due to the costs associated with running a private medical practice, our practice does not bulk bill. The cost of your appointment will vary depending on the practitioner you see and the length of your appointment. Payment is required to be made in full on the day of each appointment.

After receiving your payment, the receptionist will issue you with a receipt, which you may then either post or take to a Medicare office to receive your rebate, which can be in cash on the same day if you wish.

Alternatively, we also have a system whereby you can claim your refund directly through the clinic after your appointment. This means that you don’t have to go to a Medicare office to obtain your refund. The refund will be paid by electronic funds transfer to your nominated bank account within 4 working days.

You can register your bank account details with Medicare:

• Online – via www.my.gov.au or the Express Plus Medicare mobile app

• By post – search ‘collection form’ on our website

• Over the phone – by calling 132 011

• In person – at a service centre

Furthermore our practice accepts cash, cheques, EFTPOS, as well as Visa card and Mastercard.

Please contact reception to obtain further information on fees and billing.

Medicare Safety Net means that the Government will meet 80% of out of pocket costs for all medical services (including appointments with a psychiatrist) delivered out of hospital after an individual or family has spent $2133 in out of pocket fees for all doctors services delivered out of hospital in a calendar year (or $680.70 if you are a concession card holder or family receiving family tax benefit (A)).

Therefore, this will substantially reduce you and your family’s costs of seeing a practitioner, if you and your child become involved in ongoing treatment. This refund will amount to 80% of your costs after you receive your Medicare rebate, meaning that the government would reimburse you for a significant portion of the standard 30 or 45 minute appointment fee, once you and your family have met the threshold.

Medicare will automatically keep track of your progress towards this for you when you lodge your receipts from your payments.  However, to receive this benefit your family must be registered for the safety net. We strongly encourage you to do this, and a registration form can be filled in and lodged with Medicare. The form is only necessary for families, as individuals are automatically enrolled for the safety net.

If you require more information on the new safety net, please contact our receptionist or practice manager. Alternatively, you can also contact Medicare on 1800 011 163, or visit their website at humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/medicare/medicare-safety-net

Edge Hill Clinic is a private specialist medical practice and have not received any communication from the NDIS. Patients are required to pay for their consultations at reception on the day of their appointment. It is the patient’s responsibility to seek reimbursement from the NDIS or their NDIS manager.

Please note that the NDIS only supports non-medical consultations and do not support consultations with a medical doctor. Should you wish to receive a rebate for your medical doctors consultation, you must submit your claim through Medicare. Alternatively, we have system that can do this for you.

Please contact the clinic as soon as possible to either make changes or cancel your appointment.

In order to ensure we are able to offer timely appointments, ALL cancellations with less than 48 business hours notice will incur a fee. This fee will vary and depend on the structure of the cancelled/missed appointment.

Consequently;

• cancellations on the day of the scheduled appointment will incur a fee equivalent to the booked appointment.

• DNA* will incur a fee equivalent to the booked appointment. *DNA (A term for a scheduled appointment which the patient did not notify the clinic of his/her unavailability to attend) 

We kindly ask that all script requests are emailed to reception@edgehillclinic.com.au

In addition please include;

• the name of the medication that you/ your child require

• the dosage and frequency

• when you need the script by

• which pharmacy you would like the script sent to

• any other information you would like passed on to the Psychiatrist

However it is at the doctor’s discretion to write your script, you may be required to schedule an appointment.

All script requests outside of scheduled appointments may incur a fee.

Edge Hill Clinic is located in a quiet street, with street parking. We are a 5 minute walk from several bus-stops, which have frequent bus services to the CBD

Edge Hill Clinic offers skype/telehealth consultations.

Patients in telehealth eligible areas of Australia can access specialist video consultations under Medicare, providing many patients with easier access to specialists, without the time and expense involved in travelling to major cities.

At the time of the video consultation, there must be 15 km by road between a patient and a specialist, consultant physician, or consultant psychiatrist.

Geographic eligibility for telehealth services is determined by the Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Area (RA) classification, which is a numerical system between 1 and 5. A telehealth eligible area is outside of a major city (RA1).

Exceptions to this are where a patient is:

• living in an eligible residential aged care facility

• at an eligible Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS), or

• at an eligible Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service (ACCHS)

To be considered an eligible Aboriginal Medical Service or Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service, the practice must hold a current exemption granted under section 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

For more information in regards to Skype/Telehealth services at Edge Hill Clinic, please contact our receptionists on 07 4081 3088.