To arrange an appointment at West Gippsland Paediatric Group, you will require a referral from your General Practitioner, a referring hospital doctor or other medical practitioner, or nurse practitioner.

This referral is then sent to our rooms and triaged by the paediatrician. Our reception staff will be in contact within one week.

If your referring doctor feels an appointment is of an urgent matter, they are welcome to call our practice to discuss.

Please note that we are unable to book patients for appointments with our paediatricians until we have received a valid referral from a medical professional.

Each paediatrician has different waiting times depending on their consulting days and availability. Generally, waiting times are around 4-6 months.

Urgent medical referrals will be triaged accordingly.

If your referring doctor feels an appointment is urgent, they are welcome to call our practice to discuss.

Urgent medical problems and infants under 2 are prioritised where necessary.

Please ensure your child is accompanied by a parent or carer.

Make sure to bring your Medicare card and the patient information and consent sheet.

If you have any of the following, please ensure you bring them along to your appointment:

• reports regarding your child from other services providers (GP, medical specialists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, etc.)
• assessment results (psychology assessments, cognitive assessments, school reports, allied health assessments, etc)
• letters from relevant services (school, kinder, carers, etc.)
• Your Maternal & Child Health record (blue book or green folder)

Bring any notes you have made about your child or questions you may have. It is always useful to write these items down prior to your child’s appointment

Our receptionists at West Gippsland Paediatric Group will send you a text message (SMS) 2 days prior to your appointment on your nominated mobile phone number to confirm your appointment time and date.

 Please ensure we have an updated mobile phone number for this purpose.

We understand things happen in life and you may not be able to attend your appointment.

If you are unable to attend your booked appointment, please let us know as soon as possible.

Letting us know earlier gives us the opportunity to offer this time slot to another patient on the waiting list.

There is a high referral rate to this clinic resulting in pressure for appointments. Timely notice for cancellation would be appreciated so that another person can have the appointment.

Failure to notify us of cancelling at least 24 hours prior to the appointment will incur a $50 non-rebatable fee.

If you have missed, or cancelled your child’s appointment, it is your responsibility to book another appointment. If you miss consecutive appointments without prior notification, further appointments may not be offered.

Please be aware that all the paediatricians privately bill for the individual services

Please note that we accept payments via Visa, Mastercard, EFTPOS, cash and cheque. We can also provided banking details for direct deposit payments if necessary.

Referrals from General Practitioners last for 12 months.

After the 12 month period, you are required to obtain a new referral prior to your next paediatric appointment, otherwise you are unable to access the Medicare rebate for that consultation. 

It is the responsibility of the patient/family to obtain referrals, not the staff at West Gippsland Paediatric Group. We will endeavor to remind you when a new referral is required.

Referrals from specialists last for only 3 months and cannot be extended. You will therefore be asked to arrange a new referral (preferably from your General Practitioner) after this period if your initial referral has come from a specialist.

For newborns who required paediatric care in hospital, your Obstetricians referral or hospital discharge summary  at that point is valid for 3 months.

If your child requires further appointments after 3 months, a new referral will be required.

Please endeavour to have any prescriptions supplied to you during your consultations, or discuss this with your treating paediatrician at these appointments.

 For any prescription requests outside these times, we ask that you allow at least seven days prior to your last prescription running out. 

Our paediatricians are not at West Gippsland Paediatric Group every day and cannot guarantee prescriptions will be written earlier than seven days.

Note that there will generally be a fee charged for prescriptions requested outside of consultation times.

Please note that certain medications require prescriptions to be written during consultations, and cannot be requested via telephone.

No prescriptions will be written prior to an initial appointment with a paediatrician at West Gippsland Paediatric Group, these need to be obtained from your previous treating doctor.

Your local general practitioner may also be able to assist for urgent prescription requirements of certain medication.

Our friendly staff at reception will do their best to answer your telephone questions, however they will often need to leave a message with your paediatrician to contact you when they are next available.

We are generally unable to attend to urgent matters via telephone given our paediatricians are often consulting with patients, or on the ward at West Gippsland Healthcare Group.

If you have complex questions or multiple issues to discuss, please consider booking an appointment, or requesting to be added to our cancellation list if your appointment is quite a while away.