After Hours When the Practice is closed, please call our After Hours Service on 3831 9999, who will triage your call and arrange a doctor to visit you at home. Alternatively you can attend the emergency departments of the Mater Hospital at Woollongabba 3840 1111, Greenslopes Private Hospital 3394 7654, PA Hospital at Buranda 3240 2111 or QEII at Nathan 3275 6111.  Go to Top of Page

Appointments Consultations are by appointment. We are committed to continuity of care and therefore we encourage you to see the same doctor, and will make every effort to achieve this for you. If it is not possible, the receptionist will recommend alternatives. Urgent consultations can usually be accommodated because of our flexible appointment system. On weekends and public holidays patients are seen by appointment.
Please submit an appointment request or phone 3343 0000 for an appointment Go to Top of Page

Longer AppointmentsMetropol Medical Centre prides itself on how well we run to time. We schedule appointments according to time needed. If you have more than 1 issue to be dealt with in your consultation, please notify staff at the time of booking that you require a longer appointment. This not only keeps the Doctor running to time, but also ensures the patients following you are not inconvenienced as well. Longer appointments are needed for: more than 1 issue, surgical procedures, health checks and assessments, travel health, insurance medicals and pre-employment medicals. Go to Top of Page

Autonomy If is the policy of the Metropol Medical Centre that all doctors have complete autonomy in clinical decision making, in whom they refer patients to, and to which pathology and diagnostic imaging services they refer. Go to Top of Page

Documents and Forms Sometimes a third party will ask you to have forms filled out by your doctor. Examples of these include:- Immunisation certificates, Centrelink Reviews, school camp asthma plans, etc. Please make a longer appointment to see your doctor for these. In certain circumstances, your doctor may agree to complete work for you without your attendance. Fees will apply for these services. Go to Top of Page

Feedback/ Complaints We are always keen to receive feedback about any of our services. Regular surveys are conducted in our waiting room, so occasionally you may be asked to complete one of these. If there are other matters you wish to raise with the practice, you may write to the Practice Manager. If you need to take the matter further, you may write to the Health Rights Commission:

Level 18, 288 Edward St Brisbane 4000
GPO Box 3089 Brisbane 4001
Phone - (07) 3234 0272 (Brisbane metro)
Freecall™ 1800 077 308 (excluding Bris metro)
Fax - (07) 3234 0333
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Fees We are not a bulk-billing clinic. Consultation fees are time and complexity based. To keep consultation costs and waiting times down - please ensure that you keep to the time duration you have booked. (Please note: Extra time = Extra fees). Full payment is expected at the time of the visit. Credit cards and EFTPOS facilities are available. Podiatry and Psychology as well as speech therapy can be paid for with HiCaps.

After Hours fees apply after 1.00 p.m. on Saturdays, all day Sunday, all day on Public Holidays, and after 8.00 p.m. Monday - Friday. Although after hours appointments attract a higher fee, the out-of-pocket gap is exactly the same as for daytime consultations.

Most procedures performed in our treatment room will not be bulk-billed although, you will receive a rebate from Medicare.

Dressings and other items that are not covered by Medicare will need to be paid for, either by purchasing from the pharmacy at a discounted price or by an extra fee being added to your account. Go to Top of Page

Parking Ample parking is available at the Metropol Shopping Centre, including covered parking underneath our Medical Centre. Access to the centre from this car park is only by stairs. Urgent cases and disabled patients can use parking immediately in front of the practice entrance. There is easy wheelchair access and no steps or stairs from the front of the Practice. Wheelchairs are available at the adjacent pharmacy. Please never leave your car parked in the parking space immediately in front of the centre as Ambulances frequently need access to our main entrance. Go to Top of Page

Prescriptions Normally an appointment will be made to see a doctor for repeat medication. In certain circumstances, your doctor may be prepared to write a prescription without your attendance. There is a nominal charge for this. The phone request should be made before noon, and we will endeavour to have the prescription ready the same day. Go to Top of Page

Privacy Your privacy has always been a high priority at Metropol Medical Centre. We take great care of private information about you that is held in our records, and we comply with both the Health Records Act 2001 (Qld) and the Privacy Act 1998. A copy of our Privacy Policy is available upon request. Go to Top of Page

Reminder System To improve continuity of care, we offer a reminder service. If, for some reason you do not wish to use this service, please notify us. While we make every effort to send reminder letters or SMS messages, it is your responsibility to return for further assessment or check-ups if your doctor has indicated this is necessary. Go to Top of Page

Results of Investigations Unless previously organized with your doctor, patients are asked to make an appointment for results of investigations.

Due to Privacy Laws, results of investigations will not be given to you over the telephone by nursing or reception staff or by doctors other than the one who ordered the test. Go to Top of Page

Telephone Calls to Your Doctor If you phone the Clinic requesting to speak to your doctor, you may be asked to leave a number on which you can be contacted. Most doctors return phone calls at the end of their session (either during their lunch break or at the end of the day). If the matter is urgent, either your doctor, another doctor or the practice nurse will be able to take your call immediately.

Please understand that in many instances, the doctor or nurse will be unable to provide advice over the telephone. Metropol Medical Centre is very conscious of the risk of providing incorrect advice over the phone, and wherever possible, patients are encouraged to attend the clinic in person.

These include medical emergencies, unexpected phone calls from other health workers regarding sick patients, earlier consultations running overtime because insufficient time was booked extra family members being squeezed into appointments and many others. Go to Top of Page

Waiting Times We are very aware of the importance of our patients' time and we go to great lengths to see our patients at their booked times. Unfortunately due to a range of reasons this is not always possible. These include medical emergencies, unexpected phone calls from other health workers regarding sick patients, earlier consultations running overtime because insufficient time was booked (see above), extra family members being squeezed into appointments and many others. If your doctor is running behind schedule you will be notified. You may be offered an alternate doctor, if one is available, but the choice will be entirely yours. Please do not book for a single problem (10 minutes) if you in fact have more than one problem that you wish to discuss with the Doctor. Less urgent problems can be booked for another time otherwise you will be charged for a longer consultation. We are keen to try and keep our appointments running on time to minimize inconvenience to waiting patients. Go to Top of Page

Websites Metropol Medical Centre encourages patients to be cautious about medical information found on the internet. If you do searches on the Internet you may find the following websites offer more dependable medical information: www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo - Children's Health www.dermnetnz.org - Dermatology www.mydr.com.au - General medical information www.nps.org.au/consumers - Medicines www.nevdgp.org.au/travel/Resources/travlnks.htm - Travel Web Links www.healthinsite.gov.au - Gateway to other reliable health websites www.andrologyaustralia.org - Men's Health