Consultation Fees at
Renaissance Medical Centre

Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise complies with RACGP guidelines for patient registration and identification.

Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise does not discriminate in the registering of new patients on the grounds of race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, disability or medical condition. Refusal to accept an application to register will not be made without reasonable grounds e.g. the patient is unable to provide the necessary proof for identification.

Correct patient identification is vital for patient safety, identity protection and the maintenance of patient confidentiality. Our patients must be correctly identified at each encounter with our practice team using five (5) approved patient identifiers.

• Approved patient identifiers include:
• Patient name (family and given name)
• Date of birth
• Address
• Individual healthcare identifier
• Gender (as self-identified by the patient)
• Ethnicity
• Receptionists may also request that the patient identifies:
• Contact number
• Emergency contact

All new patients MUST provide a form of photo ID, showing proof of address, and their Medicare Card.

For any exiting patients that have not attended the practice as a patient within the last 3 months, they may be required to provide a form of photo ID and Medicare card upon checking in for their appointment at the practice.

Reception reserves the right to perform periodic photo ID and Medicare card checked if uncertain of patient’s identity.

At Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise, patients are able to contact the practice via telephone during opening hours. Telephone calls from patients will not generally be put through to doctors and so patients are encouraged to make a face-to-face or telehealth appointment to speak with their doctor unless it’s a medical emergency. Alternatively, our reception or nursing staff are happy to assist you with any general questions regarding your healthcare or take messages. Reception staff may ask you to briefly explain the reason for the call to determine if the doctor should be interrupted during a consultation or to send a message. Where appropriate, the doctor will return your call as soon as possible.

Our reception staff are unable to give results over the phone, unless clearly instructed by the referring doctor. For all medical certificates, referrals or script requests, patients must book an appointment with their doctor.

At Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise, we offer telephone consultations to all of our existing patients. The process of booking a telephone consultation is simple and operates in the same manner as making a standard face to face appointment. When making an appointment online, simply select the appointment type ‘phone consultation’ rather than the reason for the appointment. Alternatively, you can call reception on 07 5551 6999 for bookings. Please note, your GP will do their best to contact you at the scheduled time, however, unexpected delays may occur.

Both referrals and imaging requests can be sent to your email or healthcare provider after an appointment. Scripts issued during a telephone consult must be picked up either at reception OR via eScript. Please be advised that S8 medication repeats will not be feasible via telephone consults; a face-to-face appointment will be required.

During a telephone consultation, your doctor will discuss any issues you might normally present to the clinic with. Please keep in mind there are limitations to online consultations such as the inability to perform a physical examination and therefore clinical judgement might be limited via telephone consults. Some consultations may still require a further follow up appointment in-person at a local GP and our staff will help facilitate this as required.

Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise operates on an appointment-based system. For your convenience, appointments can be made by calling the practice on 07 5676 7633 , online using our Hot Doc booking system , or by physical attendance.

Standard consultations are generally booked into a 15-minute appointment with your preferred doctor or next available doctor. If you feel your consultation will take longer than a standard appointment time (e.g. procedure, mental health care concern, complex concern), please advise the receptionist so that the correct time can be allocated.

Upon booking, all patients with be treated equally, without favouritism or nepotism. At Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law.

Walk In Appointments

We will endeavor to see patients without an appointment, however, we cannot guarantee a wait time. You will be seen by the first available doctor. Upon arrival, if you are feeling unwell and need immediate attention, please inform the receptionists without delay so that they may triage you accordingly and notify the medical staff.

Patient Requests that REQUIRE an Appointment

We understand that there will be times when you need to see a doctor for an urgent medical need. For this reason, all our doctors have allocated “on-the-day” appointments.

Please remember, however, that these “on-the-day” appointments are reserved for the URGENT medical needs of children, adults and elderly patients who are acutely unwell.

If you are experience the following symptoms, please dial 000:

• Chest Pain
• Difficulty Breathing
• Unstable Bleeding
• Convulsions
• Facial Swelling
• Labour
• Spinal injury
• Facial/limb weakness
• Collapse/altered consciousness
• Trouble Talking

GP Letter / Doctor’s Report / Doctor’s Certificates / Form Completion Requests

Completing forms takes time and often involves your GP reviewing your health and health information and will require a face-to-face consultation. If you have a form that needs completing, please be sure to make an appointment and let reception know what the form is for so that they can book the most suitable appointment for you.

If you are unable to attend a face-to-face appointment, you may send your request to reception via email at reception@rmcsp.com.au. The reception team will then forward your request to your preferred GP for assessment and feasibility. All paperwork requests that involve professional input outside of a face-to-face consultation will incur a fee. If the GP has considered your request feasible, reception with contact you with a quote instructed by the GP. If you consent, all private work will need to be paid in full in advance prior to work commencement. If the GP is unable to complete your request outside of a face-to-face consultation, reception will contact you and provide you with further instructions.

Specialist / Imaging / Pathology Referrals

A consultation must precede a referral to a specialist. Doctors are unable to back date referrals. Please check with your specialist’s receptionist before attending if a new referral is required for the visit. Please allow adequate time to get the referral prior to the specialist appointment.

Repeat prescriptions

Your doctor has given you enough medication to last until he needs to see you again for review. Our doctors do not issue prescriptions without consulting with the patient unless prior arrangement has been made with your doctor.

Results

Our practice policy states that an appointment is needed to obtain your results unless your doctor has indicated something different. Doctors require allocated time to further investigate, provide prescriptions and answer any questions you may have.

Reception can only pass on limited information, so we discourage patients ringing to ask results from reception. Due to privacy laws we are unable to give information to other persons without your permission. Please speak to the receptionist if you would like to discuss this further.

At Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise we consider your participation in health monitoring to be an important part of your health care. We have a reminder and recall system for follow-up visits and routine health checks to assist you in this. You may receive reminders by SMS or phone.

Our surgery also participates in national/state or territory reminder systems/registers, with your consent. e.g. Australian Immunisation Register, Cervical Cancer screening register AND National Bowel Screening register. If you do not wish to be included in these services, please advise the doctor or nursing staff.

At Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise, patients may send through simple communications to their doctor or practice staff at reception@rmcsp.com.au . Although this email address is checked on a regular basis, this is for non-urgent matters. If you require a quicker response please call us on (07) 56767633. In a medical emergency please call 000 or present to your nearest hospital / emergency department. Email received will be acknowledged in a reply and passed on to the addressee. All relevant emails will be stored in your patient record.

While we make every effort to keep your information secure, we want to remind our patients that electronic communications and information can potentially be compromised and forwarded, intercepted, printed and stored by persons outside of our practice. Patients communicating with Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise through email do so at their own risk.

Where relevant, our staff only send patient information via email if it is securely encrypted according to industry and best practice standards, unless the patient has formally consented to their health information being sent by unsecure email.

At Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise, we maintain confidentiality of all patient information in compliance with privacy legislation. It is the policy of this practice to ensure your medical records and personal health information are secure at all times and are only available to authorised members of staff.

Please see ask for our Privacy & Patient Health Information Management Policy for further information.

My Health Records is a secure online summary of your health information. Assisted Registration is available at this practice, ask your doctor or receptionist at your next visit.

This practice can upload a health summary from your records to your My Health Record.

For further information visit www.myhealthrecord.gov.au.

Renaissance Medical Centre Surfers Paradise is designed for wheelchair access. At this practice, we have a wheelchair available if required. Should you have special needs please discuss them with your doctor.

As of 1 February 2021, prescriptions now need to include information about the active ingredients in each medicine.

If a prescriber would also like to include the medicine brand name, it will appear after the active ingredient information.

This latest initiative supports other government activities that help encourage general awareness around active ingredients, such as the TGA initiative to make active ingredient names on medicine packaging easier to locate and read.

All these actions mean that it will be easier for you and your prescriber or pharmacist to talk about your options for different medicines that contain the same active ingredient. You may be able to choose a generic or biosimilar medicine, which may be cheaper than a brand name medicine.

The changes will also support greater consistency around how people see medicines information. This can lead to safer and more appropriate use of medicines by

making it easier to:

• check if you are taking the same active ingredient in more than one prescription medicine – to prevent accidental double dosing
• check that you’re not taking an active ingredient you’re allergic to
• check that the active ingredient can be taken with medicines that have other active ingredients
• identify suitable alternatives to your usual medicines when travelling overseas.
• Sometimes it is important to stay with the same brand of medicine. Health professionals can still prescribe a specific brand of medicine if they think it’s necessary.
• If your doctor decides it is necessary for you to stay with a specific brand, they will need to add the brand name and tick the ‘Brand substitution not permitted’ box on your prescription.

If you have any concerns, complaints or suggestions about any aspect of our service we would appreciate hearing about them and will take them seriously. You can go to our Contact Us page for further details