Port Melbourne Medical FAQs

We understand that you’re busy and would like a phone call to answer to a quick question. Like you, the doctors at Port Melbourne Medical have a full schedule too — juggling a roster of patients in the clinic.

So we understand that you may have a quick question, but it often takes up a lot of time playing phone tag, discussing symptoms, and arranging follow up with your doctor, and this can happen with up to 20 patients on any given day, adding a significant workload to the doctor’s already busy day. This means your doctor would need to stay back two hours and miss important times with their family.

If you have a request and would like it answered promptly, you’re welcome to leave a detailed, specific message at reception so your doctor can give a clear answer in a timely manner. Our reception staff will let you know if this is unsuitable for a phone call and a consultation is required.

If you have an urgent matter, we do hold appointments for emergencies each day. There may be appointments available that are not visible online. Call reception on 8686 0500 to see if there’s an appointment available for you.

We understand that sometimes it’s not always possible to see your regular doctor due to your schedule or the doctor’s appointment times. If you’re not able to make an appointment with your usual doctor, all of the doctors at PMM are able to see your patient notes. If you have any concerns, the doctor you see is able to speak to your regular GP if they’re in the clinic.

Port Melbourne Medical is a private billing practice, and our standard appointments are 15 minutes. We feel that to maintain a high standard of medicine practice, appointment allocation is appropriate to ensure your medical needs are properly addressed. It’s difficult to give you a clear diagnosis in a 5-minute appointment, so that’s why we have longer appointments and a gap payment is required for the time.

Our fees also take the high costs for operating a medical centre, such as rent, electricity, IT and insurance, into consideration.

We understand that when you visit your doctor, it can feel like your prescription is done with the simple click of the print button, but this is not the case. Sometimes, there are considerations and examinations that are required. Your doctor makes sure that the medication is still safe for you, or can consider a better option or different dose.

Your doctor will spend some time reviewing your file, and will ask you questions to ensure the prescription is still right for you. Booking an appointment with your doctor to get a prescription also gives the doctor the opportunity to review your file and arrange any tests or examinations that may be due.

Script renewals are available online through Hotdoc for a small fee of $35. If your doctor doesn’t appear as an option on the Hotdoc Repeat Prescription page, this means they require you to book an appointment to discuss your request. This can be a telephone appointment if you prefer. You will be eligible to receive a Medicare rebate for a telehealth consult providing you have had a face to face visit within the last 12 months, as per the Medicare guidelines. Please note that some prescriptions can only be issued at a face to face consult in the clinic.

Medicare requires a GP referral to a specialist so you can receive a Medicare rebate.

The doctors at PMM will not backdate a referral because it’s illegal, so check with your specialist’s receptionist whether you’ll need a new referral when you make the appointment with the specialist.

When you see your doctor to get a referral, we’ll make the process easier for you by:

• checking that you are requesting to see the correct specialist for your problem
• arranging any tests to be done beforehand to reduce the number of times you’ll need to visit the specialist
• seeing if this is something that can easily be managed by your doctor and you don’t need the referral.

You can request a referral online through Hotdoc, and you’ll pay a small fee of $35. If your doctor doesn’t appear as an option on the Hotdoc repeat referral page, this means they require you to book an appointment to discuss your request. This can be a telephone appointment if you prefer.

You will be eligible to receive a Medicare rebate for a telehealth consult providing you have had a face to face visit within the last 12 months, as per the Medicare guidelines.

This is only for repeat referrals – not for new ones where the problem needs to be reviewed. It may be a good idea to ask your doctor for an ongoing referral if you’re seeing a regular specialist.

The doctors at PMM are not able to backdate a referral because it’s illegal, so check with your specialist’s receptionist whether you’ll need a new referral when you make the appointment with the specialist.

If you need a repeat referral, give your doctor at least three to five days’ notice to be able to arrange this for you.

Yes. Please book a 30-minute appointment with your doctor so you can have a thorough assessment and we have a good understanding of your mental health concerns. This way, we can start arranging a management plan for you.

For childhood immunisations, or routine immunisations like whooping cough, pneumonia, shingles or flu immunisations, or travel immunisations that have been ordered by the doctors at PMM, you can book directly with the nurse. Simply select the correct booking option online or speak to reception on 8686 0500.

If you have been prescribed immunisations elsewhere and would like our nurse to administer them, you’ll need one of the doctors to review the immunisations, so this will require a doctor’s appointment before you book your nurse appointment.

If you’re going to deliver your baby at a public hospital, you can discuss the option of Shared Maternity Care with your doctor. Shared Maternity Care is a popular choice for women who are healthy with a low-risk pregnancy.
So, if you have a low-risk pregnancy, you may be able to see your Shared-Care GP for the majority of your pregnancy visits, with some visits and your baby’s delivery at the hospital.

In choosing Shared Maternity Care you:

• Have most of your care close to your home or work at a time that suits you.
• Build a relationship with your doctor and continue to see them for both your care and your baby’s care after the birth.
• Have fewer hospital visits.

Your chosen doctor must be accredited with the hospital to provide Shared Maternity Care.
The current Shared Care Doctors at Port Melbourne Medical are Dr Sarah Lewis, Dr Shnedha Nagpal and Dr Amanda Fairweather.

If you are newly pregnant, or it is your first appointment at PMM relating to your pregnancy, please make sure you let the reception staff know that you need to book a 30 minute appointment with the Shared Maternity Care doctor for your first consultation.

We understand that sometimes things happen and you misplace documents. If you lose your referral or form, we can reprint this form in case of an emergency, but it can take up to an hour or two to have a doctor available to do this.

If you’re waiting for a scan, this can mean you lose your spot or your scan is delayed, so we recommend you keep your forms in a safe place.

Yes, you can. We have an EFTPOS terminal that allows instant processing of the Medicare rebate to your account. You need to have a cheque or savings card to process this rebate.

If your doctor is aware of your situation and has recommended an allied health provider, they will usually write a referral to them so that they can keep up to date with your situation.

If you have a GP health management plan in place, our nurses can arrange a change to the provider if needed.

If you don’t have a GP management plan in place, then you don’t qualify for a rebate, so a GP referral isn’t necessary for this purpose. We recommend you ask your allied health provider to write to your GP so they can keep up to date with your clinical situation.