22 Princes Terrace Jan Juc Vic 3228 Phone: 03 5261 4146 www.karunamedicine.com Open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm Saturday 8.30am to 12.00 noon In an Emergency: Call 000 Ambulance WELCOME On behalf of all our practitioners and support staff we welcome you to our health centre. Whether you are an existing patient or new to our centre we hope that the information in this brochure will be of assistance and help you to gain the most out of our services. From our solid foundation of General Medical Practice we aim to create a Holistic Health Centre based on the principles of compassion, integrity and excellence. ABOUT US Karuna comes from the ancient language of India; Sanskrit. It means compassion or the emotion one feels toward the afflicted. Maya means the embodiment of that sentiment. Medicine captures the philosophy of drawing from the benefits of Western medicine and scientific pursuit, coupled with the respect for the wisdom and healing that springs from Nature. At Karuna-maya Medicine we view health and well-being holistically. Embracing the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of our lives, whilst respecting individual beliefs and experiences. We draw on the ancient, the new, and the timelessness of Nature, and remember that healing becomes possible when we connect the mind with the heart of compassion. WHO'S WHO At Karuna-maya Medicine we have a strong, supportive team of general practitioners, support staff and complementary practitioners who all work together to deliver quality care with commitment and compassion. All our practitioners have formal qualifications relevant for their scope of practice. OUR TEAM Dr. Darren Fahroedin – General Practitioner / focus on Integrative Medicine,Hypnotherapy, EFT, Dr. Peter Ryder – General Practitioner /Acupuncture Dr. Frank Ryan – General Practitioner Dr. Jenny Oscar – General Practitioner Dr. Jay Phang – General Practitioner/Acupuncture Dr. Ineke Woodhill – General Practitioner Dr. Mary Barson – General Practitioner Caroline Chee – Osteopath Candice Ridgeway - Osteopath Traci Brown – Naturopath/Nutritionist Belinda Gough – Psychologist Reception/Admin Staff Marina, Maryann, Kathy, Karen, Maxine, Natalie, Rianan, Barb Practice Nurses Jessie and Cara Practice Manager Jen Flakemore APPOINTMENTS Please telephone 5261 4146 to make an appointment. Appointments with doctors are available: Monday to Friday 8.30am to 12 noon 2.00pm to 5.30pm Saturday 8.30am to 12.00 noon. Urgent medical problems are always given priority . If your usual doctor is not available another doctor will be able to see you. Please let the receptionist know if you require a longer appointment and this will be arranged. All new patients are given a longer appointment. Some minor surgical procedures require longer appointment times and special arrangements may be necessary. Insurance medicals or pre-employment medical also require special arrangements and a longer consultation time. If you are unsure please check with the receptionist or ask to speak to the doctor. All patients are given a separate appointment time. If you wish several family members to be seen please let reception know. INTERPRETER or NATIONAL RELAY SERVICE? If an interpreter is needed please let us know prior to the appointment and we will arrange this for you. If you need more information or would like us to utilise the National Relay Service please let us know. WHAT TO BRING TO YOUR APPOINTMENT Please bring your Medicare card and any Pension or Veteran Affairs cards. Any paperwork if you are having a pre-employment or insurance medical. Your medications or a list of them. The yellow child immunisation booklet if relevant. ALLIED HEALTH PRACTITIONER APPOINTMENTS All appointments for our other health practitioners can be made through reception. Please see the individual practitioners information sheet for further details. WHAT DO WE OFFER HERE? Check-ups Vaccination Hypnotherapy Chronic disease Immunisation Insurance Medicals management Health Assessments Home Visits Minor Surgery Herbal medicine Naturopathy Pap Smears Fracture care Sports Medicine Psychological services Wound repair Homeopathy Pathology Specimen Collection Removal of most Medical Intuitive Acupuncture skin lesions Family Planning Osteopathy Nutrition Advice Obstetrics Shared Counseling Care Travel Medicine Integrative Medicine St John of God Yellow Fever Pathcare collection Accredited centre URGENT APPOINTMENTS Patients of this practice are able to contact a doctor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for urgent appointments. There will be a receptionist available to answer your call and ensure prompt action from 8.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 8.30am to 12 noon on Saturday. Outside of these hours phone 5261 4146 and the answering service will direct you. If for any reason you are unable to contact this practice please phone 000 for an ambulance or go straight to the Geelong Hospital Emergency Department which is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. EMERGENCIES - CALL 000 Ambulance CANCELLING YOUR APPOINTMENT Please phone the practice on 5261 4146 if you have to cancel your appointment. We would appreciate as much notice as possible to enable us to book another patient in. IF YOU FORGET TO CANCEL YOU APPOINTMENT We understand that sometimes life gets in the way and appointments can be forgotten – most times it is a “one off” situation. If you can phone us to cancel appointments we are grateful as often there will be someone else who will be only to happy to use that time slot! It is the policy of this practice to contact general practice patients by phone if they have an appointment but fail to attend to make sure everything is OK. If a patient misses a second appointment we will again contact them by phone and send a letter reminding them of our policy. If a third appointment is missed then the doctor may charge a fee of $20 – to be donated to the charity of the doctor’s choice – Medecins Sans Frontieres Doctors Without Borders. If you have any questions regarding this policy please feel free to talk to our support staff or your doctor. IF YOU HAVE TO WAIT The practitioners at Karuna-maya Medicine appreciate that your time is important and do their best to run to time. However, the nature of general practice, especially when there are emergencies to be seen, makes this difficult as some patients may take longer than they realised. Unfortunately, this may make some delay unavoidable. If you are unable to wait or wish to reschedule please let the receptionist know and your doctor will be informed. We do our best to contact patients and inform them of delay if we can. PRIVACY WHILE YOU WAIT We understand that at times some patients may feel unable to wait in the waiting room due to ill health or distress – if this is the case please let our support staff know and they will be happy to escort you to a more private room. Sometimes we may ask you to wait in another room if you are showing symptoms of an infectious complaint like the ‘flu. HOME VISITS The doctors are able to make visits to regular patients of this clinic (within the local surfcoast area) who are severely ill or infirm and unable to come to the practice. Please telephone the clinic on 5261 4146 if this is the case and the receptionist will arrange for a home visit or put you through to your doctor, if available, or the on call doctor. AFTER HOURS CARE If you need a doctor after regular consulting hours telephone the practice on 52614146 and the anwering service will direct you. After hours information on a range of health services is available at ww.docgeelong.com We share our after hours care with other practices in the area to ensure there is always a doctor available to you. MANAGEMENT OF PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION Your medical record is a confidential document. All information regarding individual patients cannot be disclosed in any form except for strictly authorised use within the patient care context at our practice or as legally directed. It is the policy of this practice to maintain security of personal health information at all times and to ensure that this information is only available to authorised members of staff. All patient health information is considered private and confidential and is not disclosed to anyone withour the patient’s consent. Staff are well educated on privacy laws and sign a confidentiality agreement when they start employment here. Patients can obtain a copy of personal health information, further information on this can be obtained from reception. Our privacy policy is available from reception or on our website. We abide by the ten National Privacy Principles available at: http://www.privacy.gov.au/health TEST RESULTS Your doctor will generally request that you make an appointment for discussion of test results. Depending on the nature of the test the doctor may sometimes suggest you can phone for the results. Reception staff will be able to check if the doctor needs to speak with you regarding the results of if the doctor has left a message for you. If possible the best time to phone is Monday to Friday before 5.00pm and Saturday from 11.00am to 12.00 noon. If you do need to speak with the doctor, and he or she is unable to take your call at the time, our reception staff will be able to arrange a suitable time for you to phone back or will take your details and get the doctor to phone at the earliest opportunity. If, for any reason, we try to contact you regarding test results and are unable to do so by telephone we will send you a Test Result Letter which is a letter from the clinic requesting you contact us.