Patient Info

This information will help you prepare for your appointment and/or procedure.

Referrals

All consultations and diagnostic services require a referral as a Medicare requirement.

A referral can be provided by your general practitioner (GP) or your specialist. A GP referral is valid for 12 months unless specified by your Doctor as ‘indefinite’. A specialist referral is only valid for 3 months.

At Ballarat Heart Centre, new patient appointments are not made over the phone. Patients making their first appointment need to provide their referral. Upon receipt of your referral, the cardiologists triage (determine priority based on urgency of medical need) the referral and a member of our administration team will be in contact to arrange an appointment.

What to Bring to your appointment
  • Medicare card
  • Private health insurance details (this is only relevant if you require hospital admission for a procedure or care)
  • List of your current medications. If unsure, you can bring your medications with you to your appointment.
  • Recent investigation results that you have such as pathology, radiology, and correspondence from other doctors.
Fees

At the time of booking your appointment, you will be provided with information regarding the consulting fees. Payment on the day of service is required, and your Medicare rebate will be claimed on your behalf when your payment has been processed. The rebate will be returned to your account within 24 hours. We prefer not to accept cash.

Appointments

Whilst every effort is made to keep appointments on time, the nature of cardiology services is that there can be unplanned events that require our cardiologists to be delayed at the hospital. We will keep you informed of any delays and appreciate your understanding if this affects your appointment time.

Registration and Privacy Consent

When your appointment has been confirmed you will be sent a registration form and privacy consent form to complete and return to the practice, prior to your appointment. This information is important to assist with accurate records, claiming through Medicare and to safely share information about your care to other practitioners. If you have any questions or concerns about how this information is used one of our administration staff will be very happy to assist you.

Download (.doc)
Parking

There is parking available at the rear of the practice or metered parking in nearby streets.

Heart Health Information

There is a large amount of information available online about heart disease, health and most importantly prevention.

We encourage you to visit these sites when seeking this information:

Heart Foundation https://www.heartfoundation.org.au

YouTube

Heart Failure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yzKwhgIvYU