Communication Policy

At St Colluthus Medical Centre we strive to provide easy and equitable access to our health care services. To facilitate this, we offer 24-hour online access to our appointment booking system, as well as face to face and telehealth communication options.

St Colluthus Medical Centre works by an appointment system and while we will always assist in the case of medical emergencies and will offer next available appointments where possible, we cannot always provide immediate face to face or telehealth access to doctors and nurses.

Our friendly administration staff will be your first point of contact and are trained to triage your call, this may require follow up questions to appropriately determine the urgency of your health needs. Our administration team can also provide you with up-to- date clinic information and policies, assist you to manage your appointment booking and ensure that you can access the care that you require.

St Colluthus Medical Centre can provide services via the following pathways:

Face to face consultations – appointments with our doctors and nurses are available on request.

Telehealth consultations and communications - appointments with our doctors are available in certain circumstances, please discuss with our administration team if this option is suitable for you.

Result consultations – it is our practice policy that results can only be provided by a doctor, follow up consultations may be face to face or via telehealth, please discuss these options with your doctor at the time when investigations (pathology or radiology) are referred for.

Phone calls -
When you call, our receptionists will triage the call after verifying your identification details (name, date of birth and address - 3 IDs). If the call pertains to a clinical matter, a message will promptly be relayed to your treating doctor via our BP software. This message will include your name and details of the clinical matter which will be linked to your health record. Any instructions or further actions given to our receptionists from your treating doctor will be relayed to you as quickly as possible and will be strictly in accordance with the message issued.

In cases of urgency, our receptionists will either direct the call to the treating doctor immediately or advise you to dial emergency services (000).

If our receptionists are occupied with other tasks and cannot answer your call immediately, you will be placed on hold. During this time, a recorded message will also inform you to call emergency services at 000 if your situation is urgent.

Our administrative staff are advised not to discuss clinical matters or results with you. These responsibilities are to be managed exclusively by clinical staff.

Fax communications - all incoming faxes received are reviewed and actioned by the appropriate doctor or staff member. Where the allocated doctor or staff member is not available and the communication requires urgent follow up, an alternative doctor or staff member will review and action this in a timely manner. All outgoing faxes are sent with the medical centre cover sheet which includes recipient details and a confidentiality and privacy notice.

Mail communications – all incoming mail is received, reviewed and then actioned by the appropriate doctor or staff member. Where the allocated doctor or staff member is not available and the communication requires urgent follow up, an alternative doctor or staff member will review and action this in a timely manner.

St Colluthus Medical Centre may send letters to patients from time to time. These may include updates re services we offer at our clinics, health reminders and recalls. If you prefer not to receive SMS reminders and recalls or if we have not been able to get in contact with you, our clinic will follow up with a letter to your last known address.

Email communication – is utilised by St Colluthus Medical Centre to communicate with patients, with their consent. We do advise that any communication directed to St Colluthus Medical via email may not be secure and confidential. If a patient chooses to contact the clinic via email this is at their own risk and this communication will be considered as patient consent to reply via email.

SMS communication – St Colluthus Medical Centre utilises SMS for appointment reminders and confirmation, as well as health reminders and recalls. St Colluthus Medical Centre utilises Hot Doc which in addition to providing an online booking system, provides automatic reminders via SMS. If you prefer not to be contacted via SMS, please contact our administration team who can assist you to opt out of this system.

Please note that if another person can access your mail, emails or mobile phone then St Colluthus Medical Centre cannot guarantee the confidentiality of these communications.

Website – St Colluthus Medical Centre has a central website which includes information about our services, as well as links to our online booking system. We strive to ensure that our website is up to date and includes our clinic details, contact information, opening hours, doctor profiles, booking and fee information. If you have any queries or believe that any of this information is incorrect, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Procedure for Patient Messages - Messages from patients and staff are recorded in an internal messaging system which is provided in our clinical software, Best Practice. The messages can be saved in the patient’s history when actioned, showing the message/response.

Communication Policy In case of Emergency, Crisis or Disaster

In urgent situations, all doctors have remote access to patient results and can provide advice over the phone. Additionally, pathology has access to doctors' mobile phone numbers for urgent result notifications.

Doctors will guide patients on appropriate actions based on the situation.

Patients have the option to book appointments online via HotDoc.

Communication with the practice can also be conducted via email or through our Facebook business page.

The practice manager can update patients by posting on Facebook, sending broadcast messages via HotDoc, or using the email system.

Communication among staff members will primarily occur through messages, mobile phone calls, or emails.

St Colluthus Medical Centre will update the communication policy depending on the current available government health advice and guidelines, our staff will endeavour to provide relevant updates as appropriate.