100 Narara Valley Drive
Narara NSW 2250
Telephone (02) 4328 2811
Fax (02) 4328 5040
In the event of an emergency call 000 immediately
Practice Information Sheet
Dr Russell Spinks: MB BS, D(Obst) RCOG,DACOG,FRACGP
Dr Dean Cavanagh: MB BS, FRACGP, MPHTM
Dr Margaret Dixon: MB BS, BMedSci(Hons), FRACGP, MB BS
Dr Timothy Griffiths: MB BS
Dr Naomi Pathirana: MB BS
Brownyn, Karen: Registered Nurses
Susan: Practice Manager
Kym, Mim, Nicole & Emma: Receptionists
Our Practice
Narara Valley Medical is a quality family orientated medical practice located in Narara on the NSW Central Coast. Established by Dr Russell Spinks, Narara Valley Medical is committed to providing comprehensive healthcare to all our patients. As a fundamental part of this commitment our doctors, registered nurses and reception team recognise the importance of ensuring our patients are fully involved in their healthcare.
Informed Patient Decisions
Our practice provides patients sufficient information about the purpose, importance, benefits and risks associated with proposed investigations, referrals or treatments to enable patients to make informed decisions about their health.
Cultural Status
Narara Valley Medical encourages Aboriginal & Torres Straight Island patients to notify our doctors and reception team of their cultural status.
We acknowledge different nationalities, the most common language by our practice population is English therefore we print all our communication in English. If you require any additional language services please let us know.
Interpreter Services
Our practice has policies and procedures for communicating with our deaf and non-English speaking patients; we endeavour to accommodate their needs as best we can.
If you require this service, please make your appointment in advance where possible and inform us of your need for an interpreter. Our reception team are able to book AUSLAN or other interpreter services for our deaf and non-English speaking patients.
E-Health
Narara Valley Medical is E – Health Ready, we are connected to the Nation eHealth Record System. For more information please visit www.ehealth.gov.au
GPA Plus
Our practice is accredited by the QPA after undergoing comprehensive evaluation achieving a QPA Plus rating; this means that Narara Valley Medical has achieved the highest accreditation rating for complying with the standards of general practice set by the RACGP.
Electronic communication
At Narara Valley Medical we do not accept any form of correspondence from patients via email. We encourage all patients to ring the surgery to make an appointment to see their doctor or another doctor at the surgery who will have access to patient records.
We understand email is one of the most easy and convenient forms of communication, and our GPs and general practices often receive requests from patients, other clinicians and third parties to send health information via email. We must ensure communication regarding health information is safe and secure. The use of unencrypted and unsecured email can create risks to the privacy and security of personal and sensitive health information. Emails can easily be sent to the wrong recipient. Emails are vulnerable to interception and emails can also be read by anyone within our surgery. Therefore, Narara Valley has introduced this policy of no emails from patients will be accepted.
Patient Records
All patient appointments are written up and stored on our preferred medical program ‘Medical Director’. Our patient records are backed up daily to a secure location and daily, weekly and monthly maintenance and security checks are performed by our local IT company. Only relevant doctors can access patient records. All computers are password protected and all staff have their own individual password. This password is not shared with other team members and is changed every three (3) months.
Our Consultations
Our practice is appointment-based. We do not encourage walk in appointments. Our appointment system enables us to accommodate patients with urgent, non-urgent, complex, planned chronic care and preventive health needs. We can offer telephone appointments, on request for non-complex conditions.
All patient appointments are written up and stored on our preferred medical program ‘Medical Director’. Our patient records are backed up daily to a secure location. Only relevant doctors can access patient records. All computers are password protected. All staff have their own individual password. This password is not shared with other team members.
To make an appointment call us on 02 43 28 28 11 during opening hours or book online at www.nararavalleymedical.com.au
Opening Hours
Monday-Friday: 8.30am-5.30pm
Saturday: 8.30am-12 noon
After Hours Service
When Narara Valley Medical is closed, one of the doctors is on call for problems that need urgent medical attention. Otherwise, the on-call doctor can be contacted via Gosford Hospital on 43202 111.
If the doctor cannot be contacted please proceed to accident and emergency at Gosford Hospital.
For the individual Doctor’s roster, please see the notice board in the practice or check the events calendar online at www.nararavalleymedical.com.au
Home Visits
Home consultations are available at the doctors’ discretion. Please advise our reception team if you require a home visit, our reception team will discuss your request with the doctor concerned.
Our Appointment Types
Appointment types are described below:
A Standard Appointment is 15 minutes for all routine consultations.
A Long Appointment is 30 minutes for longer consultations. A longer consultation is necessary if you have a few problems to discuss with the doctor or for some procedures. Please advise reception team at the time of making your appointment if you think you require a long appointment.
A Prolonged Appointment is 45 minutes for consultations requiring extensive medicals, insurance examinations, stress tests, dive medicals, reports or paperwork.
Urgent appointments are given the next available appointment on that day or seen immediately. Please call prior to coming into the practice where possible for advice on the most appropriate action. In the event of an urgent appointment you may not be able to see your doctor of choice.
Phone Appointments patients can request a phone consultation with a doctor. Consent must be obtained from the patient before the consultation can proceed. Phone appointments are for patients that require a script or are contagious or are unable to attend the surgery due to immobility. It remains a legislative requirement that GPs working in general practice can only perform a phone service where they have an established clinical relationship with the patient. It is also required that the GP from the practice has provided at least one face-to-face service to the patient in the 12 months preceding the phone appointment. A service may only be provided by phone where it is safe and clinically appropriate to do so.
We make every effort to make it possible for a patient to have a phone consult with their doctor of choice. However, this is not always possible.
Our Fees
Narara Valley Medical is a private billing practice. Payment is due at the time of consultation.
We do not bulk bill, however, children under 16 years of age, pension or healthcare card holders may be charged at a concession rate at the doctor’s discretion.
Please note: We are unable to bulk bill any consultations on Saturdays.
Payment can be made by Cash, EFTPOS, Visa or Mastercard.
Our fees are charged as follows:
| FEES (as at 1 February 2023) | Monday – Friday | Saturday | Medicare Rebate |
| Standard Consultation 15 minutes | $75.00 | $85.00 | $39.75 |
| Long Consultation (including new patient) 30 min | $120.00 | $125.00 | $76.95 |
| Extended Consultation 40 min | $190.00 | $195.00 | $113.30 |
We have the latest Tyro EFTPOS technology to assist our patients with the ease of an immediate Medicare Rebate, therefore we are able to process your Medicare rebate onsite back into your savings account at the time of consultation.
Tyro provides an end-to-end solution authorising, clearing and settling electronic payments for credit, EFTPOS and scheme debit cards as well as Medicare Easyclaim.
With Tyro EFTPOS, all transactions are processed in real time.
Our Services
We all know ‘prevention is better than the cure’ and Narara Valley Medical recognises the crucial importance and need for preventive health care.
For a majority of people, regular health screening provides the reassurance that your doctor will pick up any potential medical problems early, thereby increasing your chances of successful treatment.
If a potential problem is detected, you will have the opportunity to take effective action straightaway, with the full guidance and support of your doctor.
In addition to general health checks, our practice provides health assessments to the following eligible persons to identify any health risks and organise any follow up care required:
- Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health checks
- disability & aged care assessments
- over 45 years health assessment
- over 75 years health assessment
We also offer our patients antenatal, pregnancy & postnatal care, asthma action plans, chronic disease management, diving medicals, men’s and women’s health checks, paediatric healthcare and immunisations, pre-employment medicals and insurance claims, skin cancer checks, sports medicine, surgical procedures and travel medicine.
For the convenience of our patients, Laverty pathology has a collection room onsite for pathology collections requested by our doctors.
Our Recall and Reminder System
Our practice policy is not to discuss any results over the phone. Our receptionists and registered nurses do not have access to your results. Patients are required to make a face to face appointment or a phone appointment (for results) with their GP. If it is an emergency, a staff member can triage and refer you to the first available doctor. If it is a non emergency a patient appointment can be made with the first available doctor.
If you have been referred for further blood tests or other investigations, it is important for you to return to discuss those results with the doctor.
We recommend you book an appointment to discuss your results with the doctor as soon as possible.
Recalls
In the event your doctor has reviewed your results and would like to discuss your results with you, one of our reception team may contact you via phone or SMS message to make a recall appointment. Recall appointments, although not always urgent are important to attend to discuss your results with the doctor.
Reminders
At Narara Valley Medical, our systems support a proactive approach in preventative healthcare initiatives. We use a reminder system to advise our patients of their upcoming assessments, such as chronic health assessments, pap tests for cervical cancer screening, mammograms for breast cancer screening, skin checks, stress tests or any other relevant health checks. As a result of this, you may receive a phone call, SMS message or letter from our practice to remind you to contact us to make an appointment.
If you do not wish to participate in our reminder system, please let our receptionist know.
SMS messages are sent out daily to remind you and confirm your appointment for the following day (subject to patient consent).
Our Privacy Policy
At Narara Valley Medical we are committed to your privacy and take our privacy obligations seriously. Our practice complies with the standards set out by the Privacy Act (1988) and the Australian Privacy Principals.
Our privacy policy is to provide information to our patients, on how your personal information including your health information, is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.
A full copy of our privacy policy can be obtained from our reception team or can be found online on our website: www.nararavalleymedical.com.au/privacy
Patient Feedback and Complaints
At Narara Valley Medical we understand that patient feedback, complaints and suggestions are very important to our growth and understanding our patient’s needs.
If you are unhappy with any aspect of the care you receive from this practice, we are keen to know about it.
Please talk to your doctor, our practice manager or our reception team about any problems you have with the service we provide. You may also complete the feedback form on our website or put your comments in a letter and address to:
Narara Valley Medical
100 Narara Valley Drive
Narara NSW 2250
All complaints will be looked at by Dr Russell Spinks and dealt with appropriately.
If you feel that the appropriate action has not been taken, you may contact the
Health Care Complaints Commission
LMB 18
Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
Phone: 02 9219 7444 or Toll-Free 1800 043 159
Email: hccc@hccc.nsw.gov.au
Website: www.hccc.nsw.gov.au
No Smoking
Narara Valley Medical has a No Smoking Policy. Smokers are advised not to smoke within 4 meters of our practice for the health of other patients.
Our Website
Other useful information can be found at www.nararavalleymedical.com.au
Our website abides by the MBA Code of Conduct.