your appointment

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Prior to Your Appointment

To ensure we have all the relevant information, and to allow you and your child to get the most out of your consultation, please ensure the following documents have been sent to us (via fax or email) prior to your appointment. (Sending these documents up-front will also save you and our receptionists time when you arrive):

• Referral letter from your doctor. Please note that GP referrals are typically valid for 12 months from the date of the first appointment. Specialist referrals are typically valid for only three months from the date of the first appointment. For prenatal referrals, please ensure the name and date of birth of both partners are included.
• Previous letters, blood results, imaging results, EEG results.
• Completed patient details form (which should have been emailed to you when the booking was made. For convenience, this is also available in the 'DOWNLOADS' section below).

Please contact us if you have visited our practice previously and are unsure whether or not your referral is still valid.

Day of Your Appointment

On the day of your appointment, please bring available imaging (e.g. MRIs on film or on disc). Please be aware that to aid in diagnosis, some doctors may request the taking of clinical photographs in addition to a physical examination.

Please note that if the appointment is for your child, your child must attend! (This may appear obvious. However, we have had some parents attend a consultation for their child without bringing them!)

Time-Keeping

In an attempt to minimise wait-times, our doctors typically see patients back-to-back. Therefore, they very much appreciate patients and their families arriving on-time. (If a family arrives late, this typically means that the doctor will run late for the remainder of the clinic).

If you are traveling to Paediatrics North via public transport, please allow sufficient contingency for train/bus cancellations, and trains/buses running late. In addition, please allow sufficient time to walk from the train station/bus stop to the practice.

Parking

If travelling by car, please allow sufficient time to find parking. (Some suggestions for parking are listed under 'DIRECTIONS' at the bottom of this page). Furthermore, please allow contingency in case the doctor is running behind schedule. (For appointments that are scheduled for up to 30 minutes, please allow one hour for parking. For appointments that are scheduled for 60 to 90 minutes, please allow two hours for parking).

Potential Financial Assistance for Travel/Accommodation

If you are travelling a great distance for specialised health treatment that is not available locally, you may be eligible for assistance towards the cost of your travel and accommodation from the NSW Government. For further details, please see:

https://www.iptaas.health.nsw.gov.au/

Cancellations/Non-Attendance

In the ideal world, we would love to offer every patient an immediate appointment. However, due to a severe lack of specialists combined with extremely high demand, our specialists tend to be fully-booked for several months. Thus, if you are able to secure an earlier appointment at another practice, or you wish to cancel an appointment for any other reason, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the appointment to another patient on our very long waitlist.

Please note that cancelling an appointment within 24 hours of the appointment, or failing to attend an appointment, will incur a fee of $150 for a new patient appointment, and $75 for a follow-up appointment. No Medicare rebate can be claimed on this fee.

To ensure new patients receive maximum Medicare rebate, please ensure all referrals include the following wording (if appropriate):

• “Referral for a comprehensive treatment and management plan”.

To ensure existing patients receive maximum Medicare rebate, please ensure all referrals include the following wording (if appropriate):

• “Referral for a review of the comprehensive treatment and management plan due to change in condition or circumstance”.