In an emergency call 000.
Our practice ensures reasonable arrangements for medical care, including the follow up of seriously abnormal and life-threatening pathology results for our patients outside our normal opening hours.
The arrangements for medical care outside normal opening hours including how to access this care and the possibility of out-of-pocket costs, is communicated clearly to patients of this practice.
In our practice, we offer after-hours care to patients of our practice by having formal arrangements with 13SICK (phone: 13 74 25) who will contact our general practitioner on call where a home or other visit is deemed necessary.
As our practice has a formal written arrangement with 13SICK to provide care to our patients during the after-hours period, this arrangement details how we receive information about any care that is provided to our patients and how the general practitioner providing the care can contact the practice for clarification or help regarding background information relating to a patient, especially in an emergency.
Feedback about the quality and timeliness of after-hours care provided to our patients by the after-hours service provider is obtained, and patient satisfaction with our after-hours service is regularly evaluated and improvements implemented if necessary.
To facilitate continuity of care, we ensure any reports or notes pertaining to consultations occurring outside the normal opening hours, either by or on behalf of our practice, are incorporated into the patients’ health records in a timely manner.
Our practice has provisions enabling pathology providers to contact a patient’s general practitioner or other member of our medical team where significant and life-threatening pathology results are identified outside our normal opening hours.
Our practice’s normal opening hours are Monday-Friday 8am-5pm, closing at 1pm for 1 hour for lunch.
Advice to our patients on how to access care during the after-hours period, including the potential for out-of-pocket expenses, is available:
- By our telephone
- In the practice information sheet
- On a sign visible from outside the practice, and
- On our practice website.
For calls received after-hours, our practice has a comprehensive message on the answering machine that includes the practice’s opening hours, details of the after-hours care arrangements in place (including a contact telephone number) and a recommendation to call ‘000’ if the matter is an emergency.
In our practice, we offer after-hours care to patients of our practice by having formal arrangements with 13 SICK who will contact our general practitioner on call where a home or other visit is deemed necessary.
Sometimes our general practitioners may need to be contacted during the after-hours period by the pathology service about a serious or life-threatening matter. We have provided these organisations with a list of the after-hours contact numbers of our general practitioners and, in the event, they cannot be contacted, an alternative person to contact in their absence. This list is reviewed and updated on a regular basis to ensure the numbers and contacts remain current.
Any correspondence or notification received about after-hours care provided to a patient of our practice is documented in the patient’s health record.