Patient Informaton - Katherine Medical & Health Centre | Katherine Doctors

Managing COVID at Home Resources

Now that the OMICRON variant of COVID-19 has swept through Australia, clearly there is concern by everybody regarding what do I do if I test positive. Generally what is occurring for patients who are fully vaccinated is that there are very mild symptoms which means that you can safely remain at home until you are no longer symptomatic. Below is a resource for patients who are COVID positive on successfully managing their COVID infection at home.

Under the current NT CovidCare arrangements, as soon as you test positive, you should call the clinic and ask to be booked with a doctor to see if you should and are eligible for antivirals.

Currently, if you have tested positive, no further testing is required. You must isolate until noon of the 8th day after your positive test. As long as you are symptom free, after that you can come out of isolation but must be fully masked for another 7 days. It is highly recommended that you follow the instructions on the NT Government coronavirus page here.

Please remember that any close contacts (including people who live with you) should also isolate for 7 days. Follow the guidelines on the above page on how to avoid becoming positive whilst isolating.

If you have any concerns at all you can arrange a telehealth consultation with your GP by simply calling reception on 7903 2100 between 8.00am and 5.00pm. After hours, if you feel you are deteriorating then call 000 and have an ambulance take you to Katherine Hospital.

For key information on managing COVID in the home, please download the resource from the Royal Australian College of General Practice here.

Our Services

Indicative of the support we surround you with, listed below are just some of the services delivered out of this clinic:

Audiometry
Child Health
Chronic Disease Management
Diabetes Management and Education
Echocardiograms
Fitness to drive assessments – commercial and non-commercial
General Medicine
Gynaecology & Family Planning
Heart Health (including ECG & Holter monitors)
Health Checks for people aged 40-49 & over 75
Health Plans
Immunisations (including childhood immunisations and travel vaccinations)
Iron Infusions
Men’s Health
Obstetrics
Optometry
Patient health information
Pre (ante) and post-natal care
Pre-Employment assessments
Skin Checks and treatments
Spirometry
Sutures and Staple removals
Venesections
Women’s Health
Wound Management

Visiting Specialists

Cardiologist
Surgeons
Plastic Surgeons
Psychiatrists
Physicians

Allied Health Practitioners

Fees

Consultations are billed based on the complexity and length of time taken. Bauhinia Health is a mixed billing clinic. All mixed billing fees are charged at full rate on eftpos or savings cards only and the Medicare rebate then refunded automatically, at the time of payment, back onto the same card. The most a patient will be out of pocket for a non-procedural consultation is between $50 and $55 – less than the flagfall charged by an electrician or plumber to visit your house.

Failure to attend the appointment or late cancellations may incur fees.

Bauhinia Health bulk bills the following consultations only:

All children 10 years and under
All card holders of a Healthcare concession card

New Patients

We ask that all new patients arrive 15 minutes earlier than their scheduled appointment so that our Practice Nurses can capture your medical history before seeing the Doctor. If you do not have a MyHealth Record, we will also ask you to sign a record request form to obtain your medical hsitory from your previous Doctor.

If you are making an appointment by phone, please advise the receptionist that you are new patient.

After Hours

If you are experiencing chest pain please call an ambulance on 000.

We do not provide an After Hours Doctor service, you can however, access the HealthDirect helpline for advice or attend the Emergency Department at Katherine District Hospital on Giles Street.

HealthDirect help line: 1800 022 222

GP Home and Aged Care Visits

Bauhinia Health offers home and Aged Care visits for existing regular patients within a 10 km radius of our First Street clinic.

GP home and Aged Care visits are conducted during ordinary clinic hours. We do not offer an after hours service.

To arrange a visit for regular patients we require you speak with one of our Practice Nurses who will determine whether a home visit is warranted and that the following eligibility criteria are met:

the patient is acutely unwell
the patient is immobile
the patient is unable to physically attend our clinic
our team deems the visit safe and reasonable

Home visits and Aged Care visits are at the discretion of your treating doctor.

* this is not an emergency service – in the case of an emergency call 000

Communications, Recalls and Reminders

We communicate with you via your phone, either by calling you or sending you a text message with information that could require some action from you. This includes appointment reminders. Our doctors will also call you if they need to discuss your results with you.

Following any tests / referrals the Doctor’s recommended you have, once our Doctors have reviewed the reports they will make contact with you, if the matter is urgent. Otherwise, you will get a text advising you to make an appointment if the matter is not urgent.

If you leave a message for us to call back, we will call you within 24 hours.

At a Doctor’s discretion we may also email you test results, referrals to other services and medical certificates. We may also email or text you to advise you of the need for specific health checks, care plan reviews or Commonwealth Government initiatives.

We are committed to preventative care and also run a reminder system for regular patients. Consent is assumed unless you prefer to “opt out” of this valued service. Please notify staff if this is your preference.

Our recall system is designed to follow up on clinical significant results. Staff will be instructed by your GP to recall you for an appointment to follow up.

Recall appointments and reminders are normally a result of being due for an annual check-up, review of your health care plan or as a follow up on previous test results. A follow-up appointment can be made by simply following the instructions on the SMS sent to your mobile phone.

Repeat scripts

This service is only available to existing patients of the clinic and is at the discretion of the patient’s regular GP. Patients must have had a consult with their regular GP in the last 12 months. Repeat medication prescriptions will be at the discretion of your doctor and will not be provided for medication with addictive potential.

We use our telehealth doctor(s) to provide repeat scripts, and repeat referrals – we book a phone appointment for you. The telehealth doctor will review your case notes and provide a repeat script based on your regular GPs notes. This service is bulkbilled. Your script will either be sent to your phone as an escript, to your email address as an escript or to the pharmacy as an escript. Your preference is recorded on your patient file.

The telehealth doctor will call you as close to the allotted time as possible.

If your request is urgent please contact us for an appointment by:

Calling (08) 7093 2100 or click on the Make Booking button above.

Your doctor may ask for a face-to-face consultation before issuing the script.

Referred Tests

It is the responsibility of each patient to follow up on all tests and referrals arranged for them by their GP. If no further action is required on your results you will receive a text confirming this, otherwise contact the clinic to obtain the outcome of your tests or specialist appointments.

Prescribing drugs of dependence

Bauhinia Health staff and doctors recognise that some drugs of dependence have an important therapeutic role in pain management.

RACGP recommendations for prescribing drugs of dependence in General Practice cover acute pain, chronic pain, ongoing therapy, assessment and monitoring and strategies for discontinuing opioids in general practice.

Drugs of dependence will not be prescribed to patients new to the clinic. Patients must have a detailed history uploaded to their clinical file and must enter into a drugs of dependence therapy agreement (contract).

GPs who had previously prescribed may no longer be willing to continue a treating relationship, and they are not compelled to do so.

The practice or individual clinic team members have the right to refuse to treat patients in defined circumstances and it is up to the individual Doctors discretion whether or not to prescribe.

We have a zero tolerance policy for abuse of any of our staff if a treatment request is declined.

Wait Times

Doctors at Bauhinia Health attempt to run on time. However varying needs of patients and those with acute ill health often effect our ability to run on 15 minute appointments. Longer consultations are always available. If you require more complex consultations or have multiple concerns please ask staff to arrange a longer consultation.

It does take longer to capture each new patient’s medical history. We suggest arriving 15 minutes before your first appointment, so that our Practice Nurses can capture this information prior to seeing your Doctor. Note that even though you may have booked a normal consultation, if the consultation runs longer you may be charged for a longer consultation but remember your contribution to the longer consult will still be between $50 and $55 if you are not eligible for bulk billing.

Translator Services

Free Interpreting services are available for all patients. With professional interpreters speaking 160 languages including NT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

Please contact staff prior to the appointment if you or someone else requires an interpreter service for their consultation.

The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) and the Aboriginal Interpreter Service (AIS) provides access to phone interpreting services in over 150 languages.

The National Relay Service is a government initiative that allows people who are deaf, hard or hearing and or speech impaired to make and receive phone calls.

Health Translations is a Government initiative which provides reliable, accurate and up to date health and wellbeing information in many different languages. Health Translations provides direct links to reliable translated health and wellbeing resources produced in Australia.

History Transfers

Patients of our practice have the right to access their personal health information under the Privacy Amendment Act 2000. Your consent will be required to forward your medical records on to another provider. Similarly your previous practice will require signed consent to release a copy of your history to us. Please contact reception for advice on our policy procedure and fees involved in transferring.

Your medical records are retained at Bauhinia Health and a copy or a summary is forwarded to your new treating Doctor.

A reimbursement fee of $33.00 (including GST) is allocated for the transfer of a full medical record.

Privacy Policy

Bauhinia Health takes its obligations with the Health and Community Services Complaints Commission and the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 very seriously and therefore takes all reasonable steps to comply and protect the privacy of the personal information that we hold.

Our current Privacy Policy is available online.

You can contact the Health and Community Services Complaints Commission on (08) 8999 1969 or they can be located at Level 5, 22 Mitchell Street, Darwin City.

Feedback - Compliments & Complaints

We welcome and encourage compliments and feedback in an effort to better deliver our services. Management at Bauhinia Health appreciates the importance of confidentiality and discretion when managing your health and personal health information.

We have a robust internal complaints handling procedure, in a situation where you feel your complaint was not handled or you were dissatisfied all complaints should be directed to the Federal Privacy Commissioner.