APPOINTMENT AVAILABILITY

19 Jan 2023 12:59 PMTandem Health

Medical Centres are currently experiencing a doctor shortage.

Appointment availability with doctors at the Labrador Medical Centre rooms and most general practices on the Gold Coast is extremely tight due to a national doctor shortage and the growing local population.

Average national wait time from phone call to appointment is now sitting at approximately 10 days (double what it was pre-pandemic).  This presents difficulties for all involved.  We are using best endeavours to cope with increasing demand for services and actively looking to recruit additional general practitioners. 

Doctors embargo a number of appointments each day for urgent on the day fit in appointments and will continue to triage as appropriate. Please understand that triage involves classification via medical or clinical urgency. This allows safe prioritisation of patients who truly require assistance on the day. Understandably, urgency is often interpreted differently by patients. However, in today’s environment triage is based on the clinical urgency of symptoms.

Examples of (but not limited to) clinically urgent items:

• Acute and or life-threatening symptoms i.e. chest pain, heart attack or stroke symptoms, trouble breathing, poisoning, severe allergic reactions, query DVT.  
• Medication that cannot be missed/cannot wait.
• The need for COVID-19 antivirals
• Unwell children (however, if cold, flu, covid symptoms please contact a Gold Coast respiratory clinic).  

A note about respiratory clinics: The Government continues to staff respiratory clinics who are equipped to test and treat patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 to reduce the spread of infection throughout general practice and the community.  Any patient with respiratory symptoms can attend the local respiratory clinics. Staff at the Labrador Medical Centre continue to ask screening questions as to whether a patient is suffering from symptoms of respiratory illness in order to protect patients, doctors and staff from COVID-19 and other highly infectious respiratory illnesses. Doctors consulting from the Labrador Medical Centre can provide assistance via telephone consultation where appropriate.

• Ongoing referrals to specialists where the need for a new referral was overlooked.

What is not clinically urgent:

• Care plan referrals.
• Forms and applications generally. Please book ahead for items such as drivers licence forms, Centrelink forms, insurance reports etc.

Appointments:  There are a few things you can do to assist your doctor and to ensure your needs are met.

• Please plan ahead and don’t leave important items to the last minute.
• Please understand that a standard appointment affords your doctor time to address one item or two quick items. If you require extended time with the doctor, please request a long appointment or a couple of separate appointments.
• Please be aware all appointments are for one person. Doctors are happy to see your family member or friend if they too have an appointment booked, however they are unable to fit them into your consultation.
• If you are unable to make your booked appointment, please let us know so the appointment can be offered to another patient. All doctors have wait lists and missed appointments without notification are wasted opportunities for access and care.
• Please be mindful about what is clinically urgent and what is not.
• Please understand doctors and their support staff are human too and will continue to do their best to assist you.

Why is an appointment required?

“But I don’t need an appointment, I just need the doctor to do a,b,c,d, I don’t need to see or talk to the doctor” is a statement we are hearing more and more. Please respect support staff when they explain the steps required to fulfill your requests and appreciate that generally an appointment with your doctor will be required. Doctors run their practices via coordinated appointment schedules that do not accommodate unallocated time blocks between booked appointments to attend to such requests ad hoc. An appointment affords the doctor time to attend to your request appropriately.

Medications and prescriptions

It is important to keep a track of when your medications are about to run out and book an appointment in a timely manner.  An appointment is required if you are seeking a prescription. If you are on a number of repeat medications, it might be beneficial to speak to your Pharmacist about a webster pack. Webster packs allow your pharmacy to liaise with your doctor to ensure that your repeat medications are prescribed in advance.  You will still need to make an appointment with your doctor at regular intervals to review the medications, but webster packs do provide a coordinated solution around medication management. Please speak with your doctor and your pharmacy for further information.