At St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre, 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 an 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 St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre, 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.

St George on Mermaid Beach Medical operates on an appointment-based system. For your convenience, appointments can be made by calling the practice on 07 5551 6999, 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 St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre, 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. Healthcare is available to all who need it.

Patients with appointments will have preference except in emergencies.

Emergency Appointments

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 consiousness
• Trouble Talking

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

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 info@stgmc.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. We do not give out results over the phone as we cannot properly identify you. 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 if their results have returned.  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 St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre patients may send through simple communications to their doctor or practice staff at info@stgmc.com.au. This email address is checked on a regular basis and any 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 St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre through email do so at their own risk.

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

At St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre 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.

Please refer to our Practice Fees page.

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.

St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre complies with RACGP guidelines for patient registration and identification.

St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre 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 three (3) 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.

St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre New Patient Form

If you require after hours care or a home visit, please call the Home Doctor Service on 13 SICK (13 7425). All consultation notes will be forwarded to the practice and added to your records.

The doctors at St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre do not routinely conduct home visits but they can be arranged under special circumstances and if the patient lives within 10km of the practice.

For non-urgent health advice, you can call 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84).

For urgent medical attention, please call 000 or go to the emergency department at any of the of following hospitals:

• Gold Coast University Hospital (public)
• Robina Hospital (public)
• Varsity Day Lakes Hospital (private)
• Gold Cost Private Hospital (private)
• Pindara Hospital (private)
• John Flynn Hospital (private)

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.

Although you can often save money by choosing a generic medicine, some people should not change brands. There are also some situations where your doctor may prescribe a specific brand of medicine because they believe it is the one that best meets your clinical needs.

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.

St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre 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.

St George on Mermaid Beach Medical Centre is conveniently located on Gold Coast Hwy on the same building block complex as Mermaid Beach Chempro Chemist, Mermaid Beach KFC and Sizzler.

Street parking and building complex parking available (150 car spaces).

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 may do so by:

Phone: 07 5551 6999

Writing:

• Email: admin@stgmc.com.au
• Suggestion box at reception
• Filling out our STGMC Compliments & Complaints Form

Matters which are unable to be resolved within the practice may be referred to:

Office of the Health Ombudsman

133646 (133OHO)
complaints@oho.qld.gov.au
PO BOX 13281 George Street Brisbane 4003

As Queensland Health eases COVID-19 restrictions it is still the priority of our clinic to protect staff and patients in the practice from risk of COVID-19. There are some policies and procedures in  place in the clinic. Please see the following:  

MASKS ARE REQUIRED IN THE MEDICAL CENTRE 

It is our private practice condition of entry that all those aged 12 years and over who enter our  practice must be wearing a mask over nose and mouth. If you are unwilling or unable to wear a  mask please call reception on (07) 5551 6999 to make alternative arrangements. 

PLEASE CALL OUR RECEPTION prior to booking if you: 

 * Currently have any of the following symptoms : fever, sore throat, runny nose, cough,  shortness of breath, diarrhoea, vomiting or loss sense of smell+/-taste, no matter how mild. * Have been in contact with anyone who had COVID-19 in the last two weeks. * Have been infected with COVID-19 within the last two weeks. 

We are able to offer Telehealth so that you can still speak with your regular doctor. You MAY be  directed to attend a respiratory clinic but your GP will discuss this with you.  

Some patients in our clinic are severely immunocompromised and are more vulnerable than  others and it is our obligation to provide a safe environment for all patients and staff attending our  clinic.  

It is important that you truthfully disclose your symptoms and phone ahead so we can arrange  alternative consultation arrangements. 

Please click on one of the following if you require further information regarding respiratory  and PCR testing clinics:  

Respiratory and COVID-19 testing Clinics 

QLD Health COVID-19 Testing Clinics 

If you require any general advice and information regarding COVID-19, please go to: QLD HEALTH  COVID-19 Information Page 

Or contact 13HEALTH (13 43 25) to obtain free information and advice from nurses about testing  options, risk factors and other concerns. 

Covid-19 Vaccinations – vaccines available at this clinic : PFIZER, NOVAVAX 

It is our obligation to provide a safe workplace and environment for staff and patients in the  medical centre. We thank you for your understanding and cooperation during the COVID-19  pandemic.