Short appointment. These are booked in 15 minute intervals. You can expect about 10 minutes of consultation time, as additional time is needed to review and write notes, letters, add reminders and complete any other admin tasks related to your appointment.

Long appointment. These are booked in 30 minutes intervals. You can expect about 20-25 minutes of consultation time.

Extra-long appointment. These are booked in 45 to 60 minute intervals, depending on your needs. You can expect at least 40 minutes of consultation time.

It depends. Here are some thoughts to help you figure out the right appointment length:

1. New or existing patient

If this is your first appointment with me, please book a long appointment if you have multiple or complex concerns.

2. Nature of the Visit

Why are you visiting? Brief checks like ears or blood pressure, simple skin checks or discussing a single concern, might only need a short appointment, while more complex issues, multiple concerns, or discussions regarding chronic conditions might need longer appointments.

3. Complexity of care needs

If you have mental health concerns, complex health concerns, multiple symptoms, or chronic conditions, please book a longer appointment.

This gives us more time to address everything adequately. If your concerns are very complex, you might need an extra-long appointment, or we might have schedule a number of appointments.

4. Previous Visits

If you've had similar appointments with me before, how long did those discussions take? This can provide a rough idea of the time needed for the current issue.

5. Additional Needs

If you need more time to tell me about your concerns, or need more time to take the information in, have lots of questions, require procedures, vaccinations, or additional services during the visit, these may need a longer appointment.

Please note that for most procedures, I will need to examine you first and work out a suitable plan with you. The procedure itself will almost always need to be done in a separate appointment.

6. Follow-up or Review

For follow-up visits to discuss test results or review ongoing treatments, a shorter appointment might suffice.

7. Discuss with the clinic’s Reception staff

If all else fails and you're still unsure how long you need, call the clinic. You can talk to one of the nurses or patient advocates to explain a little bit about why you need to see me, and they can help you choose an appropriate appointment length.

As an independent practitioner and small business operator, I charge private fees for consultations. I apply the same high standard of care to all patients. I do not discount fees or accept your Medicare rebate as my fee (bulk-billing) for children or concession card holders.

Your consultation fee is calculated per 15 minute block. Currently, my consultation fee is $91 per 15 minute block:

Up to 15 minutes: $91.00

15 to 30 minutes: $182.00

30 to 45 minutes: $273.00

45-60 minutes: $364.00

Appointments for procedures have different fees. I will discuss fees with you as part of the appointment where the procedure will be discussed and planned.

The unpredictable nature of General Practice sometimes causes unavoidable delays. I do try to minimise delays where I can to avoid keeping people waiting a long time:

If you book a longer appointment and we complete the consultation without using additional 15 minute blocks, you will only be charged for the time used.

If we need more time than was booked, I may need you to book another appointment to continue the consultation another day if I don’t have unbooked appointment spaces following yours.

If I have time to run longer in the consultation, I am happy to do so. Your fee will increase and your Medicare rebate may or may not change in this situation, in line with Medicare rules, and the length and nature of the consultation.

Video Telehealth consultations are available, however a face to face appointment is preferred for our first meeting for improved quality of care. This will also enable you to receive your Medicare rebate. With very few exceptions, Medicare will not pay a rebate to patients who have initial consultations via Telehealth, or who have not had an in-person consultation with me (or another doctor at the clinic) in the preceding 12 months.

Your Medicare rebate

Your Medicare rebate will vary depending on the nature of the consultation and the length of the consultation, in accordance with Medicare rules and regulations. Unfortunately, Federal Governments over several decades have not ensured your Medicare rebates have kept up with CPI increases and the increasing cost of providing quality medical care.

Your rebate will decrease relative to time spent, and is lower for purely mental health consultations than for general consultations.

This can be important to consider for your health care budgeting. Whilst you may prefer to have longer consultations, your Medicare rebate will be higher relative to the consultation fee for shorter consultations than it would be for longer consultations. But 4 consultations on 4 separate days comes with extra travel and time costs for you.

Your out-of-pocket gap expenses do contribute to your Extended Medicare Safety Net threshold. Once you have reached the EMSN threshold for the year your rebate will increase to up to 80% of the fee for the remainder of the calendar year.

For 2023 the EMSN threshold for concession card holders is $770.30 and $2414.00 for non-concessional patients and families.