Your first appointment

After making your first appointment with Bulimba Dermatology, you will receive a separate SMS message containing a link to complete an online patient registration form. Please register with Secure Health Forms and complete your online registration form prior to your appointment, and upload a copy of your referral (if you have been referred to us by a GP or other specialist). You can also upload any relevant blood tests, biopsy or test results. If you have an email address we will send you an email confirming the Doctor, appointment date and time. This email will also contain important information for you regarding our practice and what to expect during your visit - this information is also provided below.

How to prepare for your first appointment

Please bring the following items to your first appointment:

• Your Medicare card or Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) card
• Your referral letter, and copies of any relevant blood tests, biopsy or test results if you have not uploaded these thoruh your online patient registration form.

Please plan to arrive 10 minutes before your appointment to allow time for your new patient registration to be checked. If you only arrive just on time or even late for your new patient appointment, the next patient may be seen before you to avoid further delays to our other patient appointments booked after you.

Please remove any make-up well before your consultation time if you are seeing the dermatologist for a full skin check, spot check or facial skin problem.

For a full skin check, you will generally be asked to undress to your underwear. It is not standard practice to examine under the under garments. However, if you have any concerns regarding the skin in these areas, your dermatologist will examine them at your request.

Appointment guide and policy

Running appointments on time benefits everyone. We respectfully ask that you adhere to our appointment policy to allow us to run our appointments efficiently and on-time as courtesy and respect to all patients.

The time allocated for a standard consultation for a new patient (20 minutes) is generally enough to adequately address one skin issue only. Consultations for complex conditions or requests to deal with/discuss multiple problems cannot always be met during a standard consultation. Therefore, you may be asked to return for another appointment to ensure the dermatologist has adequate time to properly discuss your concerns, or you may incur a higher consultation fee in line with our extended consultation fees. We thank you for your understanding.

If we are running late: Our dermatologists make every effort to run on time but delays are possible due to unavoidable patient circumstances such as the need to attend to the urgent needs of an earlier patient. If your scheduled appointment is delayed, thank you for your understanding.

If you are running late: It is important to remember that the new patient registration process does take time, and we require you to arrive at the practice 10-15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment. Please call the practice if you are running late and be mindful that this will impact patient appointments following your own appointment. Depending on the situation, the next patient may be seen before you or your appointment may need to be rescheduled.

Professional fees and payment policy

Bulimba Dermatology is a private billing practice. Every effort is made to ensure that our professional fees are fair and reasonable, and are structured to reflect the level of expertise and time required to provide you with the best standards of dermatological specialist care.

Our fees do involve out-of-pocket costs except for DVA cardholders. We regret that we are unable to offer discounts to pensioners or healthcare card holders. For our consultation fees see our Cost Schedule.

You will need a current referral in order to receive the full Medicare rebates, otherwise you may have higher out-of-pocket costs. Our reception staff are happy to check your referral validity when making future appointments so that you can arrange any new referrals with your GP ahead of time. We regret that our reception staff are unable to chase up referrals on your behalf. Thank you for your understanding.

Further services and procedures performed to investigate, diagnose or treat your condition during your consultation will attract fees in addition to your consultation fee.

For surgical, laser and other large procedures we will attempt to provide you with an accurate guide to the cost of those procedures with written quotes provided prior to the procedure.

We require payment in full at the time of your consultation and treatments, and will process your claim directly through to Medicare on your behalf. Accepted methods of payment are cash and Visa/MasterCard debit or credit cards.

Cancellation policy / Failure to attend a scheduled appointment

There is a continuing high level of demand for our specialist dermatologists’ services, so last minute cancellations or failure to attend scheduled appointments mean other patients on our waiting list are denied the opportunity to be seen earlier for their dermatological needs.

In an attempt to help alleviate this issue, we will send you an SMS message, email or phone you to confirm your appointment at least 3-4 days before the scheduled appointment time. If we do not receive confirmation from you at least 24 hours before your scheduled appointment, your appointment may be cancelled and offered to another patient on our lengthy waiting list.

A fee of $100 will be charged for failing to attend your scheduled and confirmed appointment, and for last minute cancellations of less than 24 hours’ notice (except in exceptional circumstances). We encourage you to let us know as early as possible if you are unable to attend your scheduled appointment to avoid such fees.

A replacement appointment is generally not offered for missed appointments and rebooking of those appointments may only be considered after the cancellation fee for the missed appointment is paid in full.

Telephone and email

There will be no over-the-phone consultations and medical advice via email is generally not provided.

Prescriptions, pathology requests, referrals and medical certificates

Generating documents such as lost prescriptions, pathology forms and medical certificates for patients takes our staff, including the dermatologist, a significant amount of time in an already busy day. If you lose or misplace any of these documents provided to you by our doctors during your consultation, replacement of these documents will incur a fee to cover the costs involved.

Location, parking and other transport options

• We are located directly opposite Bulimba Memorial Park on Oxford Street
• Free street parking is available nearby and a limited number of car parking spaces are provided onsite
• The Bulimba ferry terminal is less than 400 metres away
• A Brisbane City Council Translink bus stop is located immediately outside
• Access is provided for wheelchairs

Opening hours

• Monday - Friday (excluding public holidays): 7.45am - 4.30pm
• Saturday Acne Clinic (selected days only): 8.00am - 11.00am