Appointments & After Hours Services
After Hours Service
If you or a loved one needs urgent medical care on weeknights or weekends, but your GP is closed, call 13SICK (that's 13 7425) and request a bulk billed*, after-hours doctor home visit. The doctors are on the road from 6 pm weeknights, 12 noon Saturdays, all day Sundays and on public holidays. More GPs trust 13SICK to care for their patients in the after-hours.
* If eligible for Medicare rebates.
Alternatively, if you phone the centre after hours, your call will be automatically redirected to this service. If you need emergency medical attention, please call 000.
Medical services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including public holidays. For further information on this service, please ask the receptionist. The Practice has brochures and posters in the waiting room for patient information.
Appointments
When you book an appointment at Salisbury Medical Centre, we’ll always provide you with the first available appointment with the doctor of your choice. We do not accept walk-in appointments. If you have an emergency one of our nurses will triage your symptoms. We prefer that patients book an appointment for doctor’s time management. A standard appointment is 15 minutes and is suitable for discussing one issue with your GP. If you have a complex issue or multiple concerns please book a long appointment which is 30 minutes.
We welcome new patients at Salisbury Medical Centre and ask you to book a half-hour appointment for your first booking. New patient forms can be completed online or when you attend your appointment (please arrive 5 minutes earlier to allow time to fill out the form).
Your appointment confirmations and reminders will be sent via our online service provider - HOTDOC. You will receive a confirmation SMS after booking your appointment. A reminder and appointment confirmation will be sent via SMS 24 hours before your appointment.
Every effort will be made to accommodate your preferred time and doctor. Delays sometimes occur as we give priority to emergencies and ask for your understanding should this occur.
We apologise for any delays you might experience, and to minimise these, we recommend that you ask for a longer appointment if you have complicated or multiple problems.
Home Visits
We perform home visits in emergency situations or if no other option is available following a consultation with the nurse or your usual GP at Salisbury Medical Centre. If you require a home visit, just call the practice, and ask to speak with the registered nurse on duty.
Emergencies
If you need emergency treatment, please contact our receptionist immediately and one of our doctors or nurses will attend to you and carry out an assessment. If they agree that you require urgent hospital assessment, then you may be asked to ring 000.
Prescriptions
For prescriptions, we require patients to make an appointment. A Telehealth appointment can be made for existing patients (seen within the last 12 months).
Most medicines can be prescribed using an electronic prescription. During your consultation with your doctor, you can choose to get your prescription via SMS or email. You will receive a message with a link to your electronic prescription. Your script is stored on your digital device, so you can access it whenever you’re ready. You won't need to worry about carrying paper or losing your scripts.
We can post your script to your preferred pharmacy or scripts can be collected at the reception desk, or we can take to the Chempro pharmacy next door for your convenience.
New patients will be required to make an appointment for scripts
Specialist Referrals
We can only refer you to a specialist if you first make an appointment with one of our doctors so that we can assess you. Referrals are legal documents, so we must be sure you require additional intervention before making one, and they cannot be backdated.
The Health Department expects us to assess your problem and refer you on to the appropriate specialist to minimise time delays in diagnosis and treatment. The specialist, meanwhile, expects us to provide them with a summary of your past health and to have done all appropriate tests before seeing them. A referral is, therefore, an important document.
The doctors can send your referral via a secure messaging system, and we can email referrals directly to the Specialist.
Certificates
Medical certificates also require an appointment with your doctor. We are legally bound to have assessed you at the time of illness before providing such a certificate.
For Telehealth consultations, we can email you the Medical Certificate as per your consent.
Results
If you are phoning the practice for results, your call is directed to one of our nurses. The nurse will inform you if you need to see your doctor or advise you on treatment as per your GP.
For "non-urgent" results you will receive an SMS through our online provider team "HOTDOC". You may book the non-urgent recall appointment via the HOT DOC app or call our reception team.
For urgent results, one of our nurses will call you, or your doctor may choose to call you directly.
Recall and Reminder System
We offer a recall system to our patients for cervical screening, immunisations, health assessments, etc. If you would like your name added to our recall list, please speak to your doctor or the registered nurse. The Practice uses 'HOT DOC' to send SMS recalls and reminders. HOT DOC will also send SMS or email appointment reminders. Recall appointments cannot be cancelled or re-scheduled online. If a change to the appointment is needed, please call the reception staff.
An urgent recall appointment will be made with your doctor at your earliest convenience.
Communication Policy
All urgent phone and electronic communications are given to the nurse on duty to triage and followed up with the doctor concerned.
All communication is triaged to ensure the information is given to the appropriate staff member or GP in a timely matter.
Doctors prefer you to book a Telehealth appointment or a face-to-face appointment for all communication (including requests for scripts and referrals).
Pathology requests can now be sent to you via SMS. Please request this from your doctor at the time of the consultation.
We’re here to help! Simply call 07 3277 1621 for more information.
