Important forms and paperwork
To confirm and proceed with your booking, please ensure:
Your Booking Email is essential and required reading.
Please complete all the requirements listed, including the Patient Information Form if new to the practice; understand all required policies, including our Privacy Policy, Bookings, Fees & Cancellations Policy & Respect & Trust Policy
Organise to have the following sent to us as soon as possible, and at least several days prior:
any relevant reports about your child (such as psychology, speech pathology, OT, cognitive assessment etc)
requested documents such as questionnaires
Bring the following to the appointment:
a copy of your medical referral
your blue book/child health record
any reports etc that you have not previously sent.
Other requirements related to your booking:
Respond to our contact efforts (by SMS, email, phone) as a matter of priority.
We send a Booking Email Reminder about 72 hours (over business days) prior to your child’s appointment. We send you an SMS reminder about 48 hours prior to your appointment. You must either reply Yes to the SMS to confirm receipt and acknowledge you are aware of the appointment or you must contact us by phone or emails. Appointments are billed if cancelled late or not attended.
We may need to contact you about the appointment for other reasons, so we ask that you take these calls or otherwise respond as requested to any message.
Alert us to joint parenting problems as soon as possible. The Practice Director and your doctor need to know if parents are experiencing difficulty, conflict or estrangement in jointly parenting their child, or if a parent has not been involved or is no longer available to your child, or has died. .
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM YOUR CONSULTATION
Your doctor or allied health provider is very experienced in paediatric healthcare. They are ethically bound to conscientiously assess your child’s best interests and provide the care they judge is needed. They will be guided by their training and the standards and practice of their specialty and best evidence. They will discuss any questions or expectations you may have of the appointment's outcome and explain what they expect will be needed to progress through an assessment to a diagnosis and the development or trial of a management plan. This process may take some time and involve a number of appointments or may be achieved more quickly. They will need to talk with you and your child to obtain a history and a family context for your child's concerns. Various tests, scans, questionnaires or a symptom diary etc. might be needed. We encourage families to be open to working with their paediatric specialist. If you have concerns about your doctor's assessment, diagnosis, management or prescription, your doctor will be happy to explain their opinion and, guided by their assessment of your child's need, may offer further information, a review appointment or options for a second opinion.
WHO SHOULD COME?
Your child should always come unless your paediatric specialist has agreed otherwise prior to the appointment.
It is important that your clinician see and interact with your child as well as examine them. Your doctor will generally want to understand your child’s experience or feelings and get to know them.
What if parents wish to have an appointment without the child? Very occasionally a parent may attend an appointment alone but only when agreed by your doctor; this may be agreed in situations where the child is well known to your doctor and because of the child’s condition. Parents should obtain a separate referral for themselves to see the specialist to avoid larger out-of-pocket costs
Video appointments: Your child’s participation is required and your doctor will want to observe your child and interact with them. Older children and adolescents can give vital input and benefit from participation in discussions about results or medications etc.
Video appointments work best with laptop or computer with a monitor set up in a contained room, with some activities to help your child stay engaged or near the camera and microphone. More information on preparing for a Video Appointment is here.
Will I be able to speak with the doctor without my child being present?
Advise practice staff or your doctor if you feel it is important to limit your child’s exposure to some of the discussions with your doctor. Bring another adult relative or friend who is close to your child. They will be able to sit with your child in the waiting room for some of the time. Staff will ensure your child feels welcome.
However, parents should keep in mind that children and adolescents may be aware of their parents talking about them and discomforted by their parents and doctors perceived negativity. Our paediatricians have a lot of experience and training in working sensitively with children and will be understanding.
Children should have the opportunity to develop a relationship based on trust with their doctor.
In a Video Appointment, divert your child with an activity further away from the computer. Having a family member or friend to look after or play with them while you talk with the doctor is ideal.
Rebates, referrals and Medicare: Medicare rules allow our advised or normal rebates only when the referred patient (normally the child) attends and participates. A reduced rebate may be available in some situations where a referral has not been supplied..
THINGS LEFT BEHIND
There is always a lot to manage when attending appointments with children. Sometimes families leave things behind, such as toys, or items of clothing. We try to run a very efficient practice and space for storage can get tight. Unfortunately, we cannot hold onto items left behind indefinitely. Our staff will try and work out which family has left the item and call or send an SMS message. If you have left something behind, please either arrange to collect it within a few days or advise us that you do not wish to do so. If an item is not collected after a week or so, we must regretfully dispose of the item or give it to charity.
In our experience, very few left behind items are ever inquired about. Where we do locate the owner, it is, in our experience, unlikely that the item is ever collected.
SNACKS AND OTHER FoodS are not allowed in the rooms.
Please do not allow your children food or drinks, other than water, breastmilk and infant formula, in the waiting room and consulting rooms.
Food and beverage spillage and soiling creates:
very significant extra cleaning costs;
infection risk for a range of bacteria and viruses such as Gastroenteritis, RSV Bronchiolitis, Covid 19;
allergen risks.
If children have been eating, we ask that you have them wash their hands before or as soon as you check into the practice.
snacking inhibits play & development
We love to see children absorbed in and focused 100% on play, a book or in conversation.
Grazing and snacking distractedly inhibits healthy development and engagement with the world through play.
grazing and snacking are not conducive to your child’s long-term metabolic health.
Our ideal for your visit-RELAX AND PLAY
Allowing children to play, relax and feel welcome. Children will really enjoy building positive relationships with clinicians and staff. Happy, occupied children allow parents the space to talk with their doctors or other providers. Children and young people are most welcome to explore our carefully selected range of toys, puzzles, books, even the bell at the front desk!
Older children will find design toys, art activities, puzzles and books to occupy their time or might take the opportunity to sit quietly or even have a rest on the couch.
Children, younger and older, can be very creative and we often try to photograph their play or drawings. Some of these may be posted to our Facebook page from time to time.
Our toys, puzzles and books are cleaned regularly. Our plastic toys are washed each day. Where children have played with toys in such a way as to increase risks of pathogen transfer they are removed and washed.
We love to see children returning happily for review visits. We have some tricks up our sleeves to help children leave our rooms happily too.
Play, reading and relaxation are important for young people and can be very helpful in indicating how a child is developing or feeling.
