Services:
Drummoyne Family Medical Practice offers the full range of general practice services:


Included in this, we provide for:

  • medical checks
  • skin checks
  • cholesterol problems
  • blood pressure problems
  • asthma checks
  • childhood immunisations
  • travel advice and vaccinations
  • paediatric care
  • antenatal care
  • sports medicine problems
  • women's health, men's heath, STD checks
  • weight control
  • counselling
  • anti-ageing care
This is not an exhaustive list. If you are not sure, give our surgery a ring and ask one of our friendly receptionists if your problem can be cared for by our practice.

 

 
Operating hours:
Monday 9am - 7pm
Tuesday 9am - 7pm
Wednesday 9am - 7pm
Thursday 9am - 7pm
Friday 9am - 1pm
Saturday 9am - 1pm
The doctors are available for appointment on the following times:
Dr Robert Vial
Monday 10am - 1pm
Wednesday 10am - 7pm
Thursday 10am - 1pm
Friday 10am - 1pm		 Dr Valli Venkatesan
Monday 3pm - 7pm
Thursday 3pm - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 12midday		 Dr Denise Wallis
Tuesday 11am - 6pm
Our Reception Staff:

We have three reception staff. Their names are Marianne (you can recognize Marianne because of her New Zealand accent), Anne and Carmel.
If you have any problems or difficulties please tell the reception staff, and they will try and handle this promptly.
If you have any problems with our reception staff, please let the doctor know during your consultation, so we can improve the experience for you.
Telephone Enquiries:
The reception staff will take note of all telephone enquiries and pass the relevant information onto the doctor concern. Please note, the doctor or reception staff may not be able to get back to you straight away with your enquiry because we are busy. Also, because the doctors do not work on some days, your enquiry may be returned the next day. If you are very anxious about the enquiry (for example a test result or other problem), we encourage you to make an appointment to see the doctor.
Appointments:
We request you make an appointment, as walk-ins may be refused to see doctor (unless emergency or urgent).
Appointments allow for greater control of time related issues. We ask that you appreciate that although appointments are made, it may not be possible to see the doctor at the time of the appointment because of urgent cases, or longer consultations that may be required from time to time. If you think you will need a longer consultation (that is, equal to or greater than 30 minutes, could you please inform the receptionist at the time of the appointment).

If you want to know what the waiting time is, please ask the receptionist as soon as you arrive at the surgery. We invite you to request a drink from our reception staff (such as a tea or a coffee, if you know the waiting time is a little long).
Cancellations:
We appreciate if you could tell us as soon as you know if you need to cancel an appointment. Often, we have many patients who make appointments and do not turn up for their consultation time. This time then is wasted and we have others who would have liked to see us at the same time, so we would appreciate your co-operation with this issue.
Home Visits:
We do provide home visits to our regular patients, who reside in the suburb of Drummoyne or surrounding suburbs. You need to ring and confirm a home visit appointment. If the doctor can not do a home visit for some reason, the practice will ask you to notify our after-hours service to do the home visit.
Nursing Home Visits:
We will provide nursing home visits to our regular patients. If the Nursing Home is situated too far from our practice, we will make arrangements with the Nursing Home for a doctor who already visits that Nursing Home to see you.
After-Hours care:
We have an after-hour arrangement for patients who require acute medical attention. This service can take up to 4 hours to arrive at your house. If your medical problem is more urgent, we recommend you attend the casualty at one of the local hospitals, Balmain Hospital or Concord Hospital. We will try and see you the next working day, if you tell us you have been to the hospital the previous day, evening or night.

The after hours service numbers are:

After Hour Doctor: 8724 6300 (Please enquire about cost of service when you ring.)
Balmain Hospital: 9395 2111
Concord Hospital: 9767 5000
Emergency: 000
Billing Arrangements:
We ask for payment at the time of the consultation.We have private billing. The private billing is entitled to a Medicare rebate.
Once you have paid your bill, we can arrange for Medicare to send a rebate cheque in the mail. The difference in price is on average $15.00.

For example, if you have a standard consultation, "B" - item 23, which usually is one or two problems, for about 10-15 minutes, the cost is $40.00 and the rebate is $25.70, so your out of pocket expense is $14.30.

We accept and have facilities for credit card transactions. We only accept cheques if approved by the doctor.
We do bulk-bill (Medicare) all pensioners and health-care card holders (that is, there is no out of pocket expense).
Dr Peter Chandran's fees are billed separately from the practice. There is a rebate for those patients who have private health insurance.
Interpreter Service:
We do not have an interpreter service at the practice. If you require this, please let us know in advance of the consultation.
We will use the 24 hour service provided by the Department of Health, phone: 13 14 50.
Practice policy on the use of personal health information in research,quality assurance, practice meetings, etc:
Please read the information regarding the use of your personal health information.
Click HERE for the PDF document. You can download this and review this are your convenience.
Reminder systems:
We have a reminder system in place for routine recalls, such as pap smears and immunisations.
All copyright Drummoyne Family Medical Practice 2004