From women’s reproductive health to putting together mental health plans, GPs (or general practitioners) offer a whole range of valuable health services, so it’s definitely worthwhile registering your patient information with a local clinic and getting yourself a regular GP. You’ll be happy to hear that the process of finding a GP, and registering your information with a specific practice is now easier than ever. Follow these three easy steps to secure yourself your own GP.
1. Choose your services
Looking for a doctor in South Melbourne in particular will show you how diverse practices can be, both in available GPs as well as the clinic’s resources. Whilst GPs are always guaranteed to possess a great wealth of health information, their practice might not always be catered towards offering the services you’re seeking. For instance, a lot of practices that offer bulk billing can be quite small, and may not always offer all the on-site pathology, psychology, immunology, or other services that might be important to you. For instance, if you’re preparing to go on an international trip and are looking to get your travel immunisations out of the way, it’s good to check the availability of these services online prior to making any appointments. On a similar note, important and recurrent procedures like cervical smears are just more comfortable when you’ve got yourself a regular GP.
2. Choose your practice (and GP)
When you find a practice that seems suitable for your healthcare needs, have a look at their website and read up on their available GPs. Practices usually have doctor profiles available on their website so potential patients can read up on their GPs and select their preferred doctors, specifically so that the clinic can fulfill their universal responsibility to provide all patients with continuity and coordination of care. All patients deserve consistent and reliable healthcare services, and it’s your chosen practice’s responsibility to provide these services to you. A well-established clinic will also have online profiles for their practice nurses, as they can also provide you with valuable services, including child immunisations and blood tests among others.
3. Register your patient information
Thanks to the federal government’s recent digitisation of Australian health records, it’s easier than ever for clinics to find your patient information and provide stellar service from the get-go. Even so, it’s a common practice for new patients to manually fill in their details upon the first visit to a new clinic. The reason why this measure is taken is so the clinic can put together their own records of your time with your preferred GP, so that your doctor can attain a well-rounded understanding of the services you require. Upon your first appointment at a new clinic, you’ll be greeted by the reception team, who will provide you with all the paperwork you’ll need to fill in. It’s recommended that you come equipped with some identification, like your driver’s license and bank cards, as well as your medicare card and low-income healthcare card if you’ve got one. If you still have any questions about the practice regarding the offered services or the backgrounds of any of the GPs, feel free to ask the reception team, as they generally tend to be highly knowledgeable themselves. It’s not uncommon for a lot of medical receptionists to come from a public health background themselves rather than from a general administrative background, as the role requires a decent understanding of medical jargon.
If you follow these three simple steps, you’ll find yourself in the office of your new regular GP in next to no time at all. And from here on, your relationship with consistently quality healthcare will begin.
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