About

Your initial appointment will take one hour. We will thoroughly address any concern you have about breastfeeding. We are skilled in helping mothers with the full range of breastfeeding problems including pain, nipple damage, mastitis, blocked ducts, fussing at the breast, breast refusal, low supply, oversupply and functional lactose overload, feeding twins, mixed feeding and pumping. We will observe a feed, so please bring anything you need to support you with this, as well as your baby’s blue book. Additional appointments of 30-60 minutes duration may be required to meet your goals.

These appointments are one hour, and take a very holistic picture of the mother-baby pair. We will address any feeding issues (breast or bottle), weigh and examine your baby to assess for any medical conditions, and offer ideas for managing the days and nights. The wellbeing and support of the parents are pivotal during these consults. Our broad skill set allows us to manage not just the unsettled infant, but the caregiver too. Please bring the baby’s blue book and anything you need to feed your baby.

These appointments are for one hour and both a parent and the baby or child need to attend. We offer infant sleep support that is honouring the baby’s biological sleep regulators and embraces cued care. Our sleep education is based in the principles of NDC (Neuroprotective Developmental Care), pioneered by Dr Pamela Douglas at the Possums Clinic in Brisbane.

Your initial appointment will be for 30-45 minutes. We will confirm your pregnancy, take a thorough history, examination and explain all your pregnancy care options. There are many tests that can be done early in pregnancy, and we will explain these in detail.

If you have already had some tests or ultrasounds, please bring copies of these along with you, or inform our receptionists where you have had these done and we can arrange a download before your appointment. Likewise, if you have an orange pregnancy record, please bring that too.

Any subsequent appointments will be 15-30 minutes in duration.

Appointments to discuss your contraception needs can be done in 15-30 mins.

IUD and Implanon insertion and removals require a 30 minute appointment. The Practice Nurse will also be required to help.

Depending on the complexity of the situation, 30-60 mins is best for an initial consult, especially if it is related to postnatal anxiety or depression. Usually the issues are multi-factorial and having a longer appointment allows us to evaluate both mother and baby issues.

Preparation of a GP Mental Health Care Plan needs 30 mins. In general, this is not possible to do at the first consult as we need to conduct a thorough assessment first.

We are able to manage the vast array of women’s health issues including: problematic periods (heavy, painful, irregular); contraception; pre-conception advice and education on optimising chances of pregnancy; infertility work-up; cervical screening; sexual health and menopause management. We are also GP’s and so can manage the vast array of medical issues that women may face.

Depending on how many problems you wish to discuss, appointment length will vary between 15-45 minutes. Please book the appropriate length appointment to get your issues addressed.

We are also GPs! Although we love helping mothers and babies thrive, we are happy to see anyone to address their medical problems. Depending on the number of issues to be discussed, please book the appropriate length appointment. 15 minutes is usually only long enough to address one concern.

We are able to offer childhood immunisations. These appointments will also include a thorough examination including weighing and measuring your baby; a developmental check; and answering any concerns you have. These are done in a 30 minute appointment time and are not bulk-billed. Please bring your child’s blue book with you.

Our Rose Park clinic is open from 8:30 am until 5pm Monday to Friday. There may not be a GP on site at all times.

Saturday morning clinics from 8:30 am til midday may be available from time to time.

Appointments must be booked in advance. We have limited capacity to see walk-in patients, but will try our best. Presentations will be triaged by our Reception team, Nursing team (if available) and our GPs.

 

Adelaide Mums and Babies Clinic does not provide an after hours service.

Options for after-hours care is listed on this SA Health website (click here) and includes:

• For babies and children aged 6 months to 18 years, the Women’s and Children’s Hospital offers an on-line service “Virtual Urgent Care”. This is a fabulous service, and more information is available by clicking here. 
• Your local hospital Emergency Department
• Home visiting GP services:
  • We have an agreement with 13SICK to care for our patients when our clinic is closed. Please click here to go to their website. 
• Calling Health Direct for advice about how to manage your medical problem (1800 022 222)
• Respiratory Clinic (Parkside): this is if you are Covid positive and need a clinical review face to face (08) 8490 6971
• If you are pregnant, please contact your birthing hospital for advice after hours:
  • WCH: (08) 8166 7530
  • FMC: (08) 8204 5511
  • Mt Barker: (08) 8393 1715
  • Or the number you have been given to call if you are delivering at a private hospital.

Needing a script filled at an odd time of day? There are many chemists in Adelaide who are open either until late, or 24 hours a day.

Click on this link to see a list, and find one close to you. 

We can offer home visits for breastfeeding assistance. These do attract a Medicare Rebate, but an out of pocket cost is payable. The total amount for the consult must be paid in advance.

Visits for breastfeeding appointments while still an inpatient in a hospital are able to be provided, but do NOT attract a medicare rebate.

Please contact our Reception team to discuss pricing and availability further.

We usually do not offer home visits for any other reason.

If you are too unwell to attend the clinic, but need to see a doctor, we are able to offer Telephone or Telehealth appointments. Medicare Rebates only apply if you have attended our clinic face-to-face in the last 12 months. Standard gap fees apply to these consults.

We are passionate about supporting families during a challenging time and love what we do. In order to provide
a high quality service, we need to dedicate time to our patients and offer long consultations to give you and your
family the care you deserve. Unfortunately, the Medicare Rebate has been frozen for over 20 years, and more
importantly, it has never properly funded longer, more complex appointments. The Medicare Rebate is currently
completely inadequate to cover the cost of our medical services. For this reason, all consults at Adelaide Mums
and Babies Clinic will incur out of pocket costs (a gap payment). Our clinic does not offer bulk-billed consults.
This applies to children, pensioners, health care card holders, students, and patients that may have previously
been bulk-billed by us. Full payment is required to be paid on the day of the consultation.
If a Medicare rebate can be applied to the consult (which occurs in the vast majority of cases), this rebate can
be instant on the day or will be transferred into your nominated bank account within 48 hours depending on your
account. Out of pocket costs apply to face-to-face, telehealth and telephone appointments.
For newborns, we highly recommend completing their Medicare card application on-line as soon as possible
after their birth. If you do not have a valid Medicare card for them at the time of the consult, the full payment will
be required to be made on the day, and you can apply for the Medicare rebate from Medicare directly, at a later
date.
Private Health Insurance does not cover appointments with doctors, only hospital admissions and some Allied
Health appointments.
Please contact us to discuss payment of your account prior to your consultation, if you feel you will have trouble
paying the full amount on the day. Payment plans are available.
If, like us, you feel your Medicare rebate should be increased, please write to your local Member of Parliament, or
the Federal Health Minister, and ask for change.

Please contact our Practice Manager Rachael if you have genuine financial hardship to discuss payment options. 

 

Please click here to see our Fee Structure.

 

CANCELLATION POLICY

Appointments:
A cancellation fee will apply if there is failure to give 24 hours notice of appointment cancellation. The
cancellation fee will be the out of pocket fee for the type of consultation that was booked.

Classes: Antenatal Breastfeeding Education Class & Bringing Baby Home Class & Circle of Security
Cancellations over 48 hours will receive full reimbursement. Cancellations under 48 hours will receive a 50%
refund.

Parents Group:
Cancellations of the entire 6 week block (if cancelled prior to class 1)
Cancellations under 24 hours have an $80 fee. Cancellations over 24 hours will receive a full refund.

The Medicare Safety Net is designed to help cover the costs of all Medicare-Rebatable services in a calendar year, per family.

Costs of living are increasing, including for health care. We wish the government was able to provide a medicare rebate that, in any way, reflected the cost of seeing a doctor. But sadly, the time for this has long gone.

There are two safety nets that may help your family afford health care over the year.

One is the Pharmaceuticals Safety Net. This safety net makes sure that once you hit a certain dollar amount of out of pocket expenses for medication, the government will pay the rest. Please make sure you have registered all your families for this to get maximum benefit.

The second is the Medicare Safety Net. Again, you need to register your family for this. This is a safety net you WILL hit if you have private obstetric care, or see many medical specialists and have several expensive radiological investigations in 12 months. Once you hit the safety net, the government will cover 80% of the TOTAL COST of any further appointments.

The safety net dollar value changes depending on your family’s concession entitlements. Depending on your entitlements, you need to spend a total of $717.09 to $2249.80 per family, before being eligible for the government to cover 80% of all of your medical costs.

It is worthwhile ensuring you are registered as a family, as well as making sure you are registered for any centrelink benefits you are entitled to such as Family Tax Benefit A.

Please click here for more information. 

Adelaide Womens Health Collaborative ACN 656 070 263 (and our collaborative partners, Adelaide Mums and Babies ABN 99 434 852 992 & Womankind Health ABN 53 628 254 213, who support and provide services for clinicians whom these polices are also enforced for, us, we, our) maintain a strict policy of confidence concerning your personal information, and is committed to maintaining the privacy and the security of the personal information that we process.

This Privacy Policy (Policy) has been developed in consideration of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and outlines how we collect, use, store and disclose the personal information we process in the course of providing services to you. By accessing our website www.awhc.net.au (site), www.mumsandbabies.com.au (site) or www.womankindhealth.com.au (site) and using our services, you consent your personal information being used in accordance with this Policy.

This Policy applies to information provided to us by any other means. By using our services or site, you consent and accept to the terms of this Policy for which your personal information will be processed in accordance with.

If you have any questions or require any further information about this Policy or our privacy information practices, you can contact our Privacy Officer (contact details available at the end of this Policy).

1. Introduction:

Our practice is committed to best practice in relation to the management of information we collect. This practice has developed a policy to protect patient privacy in compliance with the aforementioned legislations and principles. Our policy is to inform you of:

• the kinds of information that we collect and hold, which, as a medical practice, is likely to be ‘health information’ for the purposes of the Privacy Act;
• how we collect and hold personal information;
• the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;
• how you may access your personal information and seek the correction of that information;
• how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with such a complaint;
• whether we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients.

2. What kinds of personal information do we collect?

 The type of information we may collect and hold includes:

• Your name, title, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• Medicare number, DVA number and other government identifiers, although we will not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
• Other health information about you, including:
  • notes of your symptoms or diagnosis and the treatment given to you
  • your specialist reports and test results
  • your appointment and billing details
  • your prescriptions and other pharmaceutical purchases
  • your genetic information
  • your healthcare identifier
  • any other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider.

3. How do we collect and hold personal information?

We will generally collect personal information:

• from you directly when you provide your details to us. This might be via a face to face discussion, telephone conversation, registration form or online form
• from a person responsible for you
• from third parties where the Privacy Act or other law allows it – this may include, but is not limited to: other members of your treating team, diagnostic centres, hospitals, electronic prescription services, Medicare, your health insurer, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, pathology services, radiology services, allied health professionals or other specialists involved in your care.
• Your information may be communicated to the Australian Government Department of Human Services or another third-party billing agent for assessment and administration of payments in order to pay or process your application/claim for Medicare, Health Fund or Third Party (eg ADF Health Services Contract) account payments. With your consent, staff will process this claim on your behalf electronically.

4. Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information?

In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide health services to you
• to communicate with you in relation to the health service being provided to you
• to comply with our legal obligations, including, but not limited to, mandatory notification of communicable diseases or mandatory reporting under applicable child protection legislation.
• to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our IT systems
• for consultations with other doctors and allied health professional involved in your healthcare;
• to obtain, analyse and discuss test results from diagnostic and pathology laboratories
• for identification and insurance claiming
• Information can also be disclosed through an electronic transfer of prescriptions service.
• To liaise with your health fund, government and regulatory bodies such as Medicare, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (if you make a privacy complaint to the OAIC), as necessary.

5. How can you access and correct your personal information?

You have the right under the Act to seek access to your personal information held by us, and we take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information held by us is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading. If you want to access your personal information, or if you believe that it is incorrect, incomplete or out of date, please contact us in writing (see please our practice contact details as noted below under ‘Contact Details’).

We will respond to any such request within a reasonable period and we will grant access provided the request does not fall under one of the exceptions to access stated in the APPs.

We may charge a reasonable fee for providing that information. Access may be denied in certain circumstances permitted under the Act (such as where the request creates a serious threat to the life or safety or is otherwise unlawful).

6. How do we hold your personal information?

Our staff are trained and required to respect and protect your privacy. We take reasonable steps to protect information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes:

• Holding your information on an encrypted database
• Holding your information in secure cloud storage (which is encrypted and maintained in domestic and overseas cloud servers as per the requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles)
• Holding your information in a lockable cabinet where maintained in hardcopy
• Our staff sign confidentiality agreements
• Our practice has document retention and destruction policies, including sanitization and sentencing as per the AMA recommended procedures for files and data inclusive of deidentification and secure accredited shredding

7. Privacy related questions and complaints

If you have any questions about privacy-related issues or wish to complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or the handling of your personal information by us, you may lodge your complaint in writing to (see below for details). We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the OAIC:

Phone: 1300 363 992

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Fax: +61 2 9284 9666

Post: GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001

Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint

8. Anonymity and pseudonyms

The Privacy Act provides that individuals must have the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym, when dealing with our practice, except in certain circumstances, such as where it is impracticable for us to deal with you if you have not identified yourself. Patient seeking certain treatments may be prepared to forego notifying their insurer or seeking a Medicare benefit and pay us directly if unwilling to identify yourselves.

9. Overseas disclosure

 We may disclose your personal information to the following overseas recipients:

• any practice or individual who assists us in providing services (such as where you have come from overseas and had your health record transferred from overseas or have treatment continuing from an overseas provider
• overseas based cloud storage which remains encrypted from the point of origin to return
• anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it

As part of our communication to you, forms and other data may be transferred from our email servers to yours which may not reside in Australia. We will seek to keep this data encrypted and secured where possible to support your privacy.

10. Updates to this Policy

This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be publicised on the practice’s website.

11. Privacy and websites

This policy is available from our website. Our website may also collect other data from you in the form of “Cookies”. “Cookies” are small data files that may be downloaded to your computer when you visit a website, which may be used to track your use of that website. Cookies must be enabled in order to use web-based software products offered by us and may be used to provide users of your computer with information that we think may interest the users of your computer.

We may use cookies from time to time to:

• track your usage of our software products;
• improve your experience on our software products;
• provide you with better service when you use our software products;
• recognise you when you return to our software products.

This information may be linked to any personal information you may provide and may be used to identify you. You can adjust your internet browser to disable or warn you when cookies are used. However, disabling cookies will stop our software products from functioning fully.

12. Contact details for privacy related issues

If you want to make a complaint about our management of personal information, to correct information or request further information, please contact us. Our Privacy Officer will contact you about your complaint as soon as reasonably practicable and we will attempt to resolve it with you. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by contacting 1300 363 992 or by visiting the website www.oaic.gov.au. Further information about the Act and the APPs is also available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

The Privacy Officer for Issues is our Practice Manager who is supported by our Business Manager as required. They can be contacted on email to hello@awhc.com.au or 08 8166 4381 or via mail on page 1 of this document.

When seeking a copy of your records, a standard fee may be for the access and provision of your records. The request form is available by contacting our staff on the details above.

13. Forms of Communication

This practice utilises a number of forms of communication including SMS, phone calls, email and general post.

All data maintained will be kept in a form that is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you believe your records are inaccurate, or your personal information or circumstances change please update with our practice manager.

We strive to provide the best service we can and we are open to all feedback so we can continue to improve our services.

We will seek feedback from you in the form of surveys at the end of all of our Groups and Classes. We will take on board all constructive feedback to make these sessions as useful for everyone as possible.

We also seek feedback from patients who have been to our practice more than once. This is in the form of a tick-box survey with areas for written feedback. Results will be collated and data updated every 6 months.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR MOST RECENT PATIENT FEEDBACK SURVEY RESULTS

Alternative options for providing feedback include:

• Filling out the below form and emailing to our practice at hello@mumsandbabies.com.au
• Complaint Form – Patient to Complete
• Calling the practice on 8166 4381 and asking to speak to our Practice Manager.

Follow up:

• All feedback and complaints are managed by our Practice Manager and/or the Directors of Adelaide Mums and Babies Clinic.
• You will be informed of the outcome of the complaint management process and resolution.
• If this is deemed substandard, please contact us to allow further opportunity for resolution; however the SA Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner can also be contacted to assist you. Click here to be taken to their website. 

Telephone Calls:

• Any patient enquiry regarding an emergency, is directed to hang up and call 000.
• Adelaide Mums and Babies Clinic telephone line (08 8166 4381) is open Monday to Friday 8:30am until 5pm (Australian Central Time). There will be a receptionist available to answer patient enquiries during this time. 
• This phone service can be used: to make patient bookings; to change patient bookings; for enquiries about services of the clinic; for enquiries and bookings for groups and classes; for enquiries about equipment for hire; to leave messages for staff.
• Messages for clinical staff will be actioned in a similar way to email correspondence as highlighted below (ie: internal message system via our practice management software and/or email via the work email and/or telephone call or SMS to the GP concerned; all depending on perceived clinical urgency). If related to patient clinical care, a copy of correspondence will be placed in the clinical file. 
• After hours, a voicemail message can be left which will be responded to in the next business day by one of our receptionists. 

Electronic Communication:

• The clinic email address is: hello@mumsandbabies.com.au
• This is checked every business day, throughout the business day, by our Practice Manager. 
• Each email sent contains the warning and disclaimer: “Warning: This email and any attachments that are transmitted with it are confidential, protected by privilege and copyright.  The confidentiality and/or privilege in this email is not waived, lost or destroyed if it has been sent in error. If you receive this email in error please notify Adelaide Mums and Babies Clinic that you received this email from, by return email and delete the original. Further details on our Privacy Policy can be found on our website. Disclaimer: Adelaide Mums and Babies Clinic cannot guarantee that this email is free from any virus or contamination. The recipient should ensure this email and any attachments are free of viruses. Adelaide Mums and Babies Clinic takes no responsibility for unauthorised use of email communications and attachments, or for damage caused as a result of transmitting or receiving this mail or its attachments. Further details are available on our website.”
• Correspondence that is directed to a GP will be forwarded onto that GP via their practice email and/or the practice management software internal messaging. There is no guarantee that this email will be read in a timely manner. Correspondence that is deemed essential to be actioned prior to the next day the GP will be in the clinic will be sent to their work email as this is more likely to be checked daily. 
•  If this correspondence is regarding a patient, this information will be also placed into the patient record as either a “patient record” OR “correspondence in” and saved as a PDF. 
• The Practice Manager will triage email correspondence and if deemed to be urgent or semi-urgent will ensure timely action by either: phone call or text message to the GP involved; further clinical triage by the Practice Nurse; email to the GP via their work email. 
• Please be aware that some emails are not encrypted when you are sharing personal information. By corresponding by email, you are consenting to accepting this risk of privacy breach.