By becoming a patient with our practice, patients consent for the practice to submit their Medicare claims on their behalf, for the fee rebate as well as for certain Bulkbilled items (e.g. interview of a person other than patient- item no. 92458 etc.).

Outpatient psychiatry services are not covered by private health funds. Inpatient psychiatry services are covered by some private health funds through hospital cover. Psychology consultations are sometimes covered by some health funds under extras cover. Patients should contact their private health fund for more details.

When a patient books an appointment, the entire hour or half hour is reserved exclusively for the patient. It is difficult or impossible to allocate this time to another patient on short notice.

A notification period of at least 2 complete business days is mandatory should the patient intend to reschedule or cancel his/her appointment. Failure to comply will result in charging a cancellation fee equivalent to 50% of the consultation fee to the patient. For instance, if the appointment is scheduled for Monday at 10 am, it must be cancelled by the preceding Thursday at 10 am. Please note that the cancellation fees are not subject to Medicare rebates.

Non-attendance will be treated as a cancelled appointment, and the same cancellation charges will apply.

Patients accumulating TWO instances of late cancellations or no-show records will be obligated to prepay the complete consultation fee for all forthcoming appointments. A notification period of at least 2 full business days is mandatory should they intend to reschedule or cancel their appointment; otherwise, the clinic will impose a cancellation fee equivalent to 100% of the consultation fee.

Our practice values punctuality and respects the time of all our patients. To ensure that all our patients receive the best possible care, appointments must be completed within their designated scheduled time. If a patient arrives late for up to 15 minutes, the appointment will be shortened to the remaining treatment time and the appointment will be charged in full.  If more than 15 minutes late, the patient will not be accommodated due to time constraints, the appointment will be considered a non-attendance, and corresponding charges will be applied.

The preferred method for patients/carers to contact our Practice is via email. It might take up to 2-4 days to reply to your emails as our current admin staff operates on a part-time basis. Patients are encouraged to email only with appointment related questions or short queries. In-depth discussions regarding treatment plans will be conducted during patients’ consultation time with the doctor.

Appointment reminders and other documents will be sent via email as well. Patients/carers must keep their contact information up to date and check their emails regularly to ensure they receive important correspondence in time.

Our doctors maintain a very busy schedule and may not be available to answer questions or provide advice outside of scheduled appointments. Any enquiry about medication, side-effects, symptoms, prescription, medical report, medical certificate, and application forms should be addressed by scheduling a follow-up appointment and having dedicated time with your doctor.

Any non-clinical questions can be directed to the reception team via email, and staff will try their best to get back to you with your inquiries. However, please note that our admin staff currently operates on a part-time basis, and it might take up to 2-4 days to get back to you with a response.

Mental health can change rapidly, and certain medications may require closer monitoring and adjustment than others. Our Clinic’s protocol dictates that prescriptions are issued to cover your medication requirements until your next scheduled appointment. By consistently attending or promptly rescheduling appointments, the need for additional refills should be eliminated. Our patients are obligated to undergo a review during an appointment before any prescriptions are issued. Requests for scripts to be posted, faxed, or collected outside of appointments will not be accommodated. Our policy remains firm on not permitting the early release of prescribed medication, regardless of the reason for the request—this includes instances such as medication loss, theft, travel, work-related obligations, and others. This is because providing medication without proper review and assessment can pose significant risks to the patient’s health and wellbeing. Patients are required to schedule an appointment for a medication review to acquire any necessary prescriptions. It is the patient’s responsibility to schedule a follow-up appointment before they run out of medication and within the return time frame determined by their treatment plan.

At our clinic all staff are trained to ensure that all patients are treated with courtesy. We strive to ensure that all our patients feel comfortable and safe when seeking medical care. In return, we expect patients to also treat the reception team and clinical staff with courtesy and respect. This means that any form of abusive, aggressive or threatening behaviour towards staff members will not be tolerated under any circumstances.  This includes both verbal and physical behavior. If this policy is violated, the clinic reserves the right to take appropriate action, such as terminating a phone call, asking the patient to leave the clinic, calling the police, or terminating the provider-patient relationship.

For New Patient Appointment, patients will need to fill out the New Patient Appointment form and attach their valid GP/Specialist Referral. Admin staff will then get back to them to organise their first appointment. More information on New Patient appointment is outlined in 4 easy steps on the website.

Existing Patients can book their follow-up appointments by clicking the ‘Book Appointment’ button or going to the ‘Booking’ page and following the prompts for “Existing Patient’ online booking. It is the patient’s responsibility to schedule their follow-up appointment well in time, keeping in mind Practitioner’s schedule to ensure continuity and high quality of patient care.

If a patient needs an appointment with their doctor sooner than is available, they will be placed on a ‘waiting list’, whereby they will be contacted if an appointment becomes available in case of cancellation. The same cancellation charges/policy will apply to this appointment as well.

Our clinic presently offers an email-based appointment reminder service. However, sending of an email reminder is not guaranteed. Patients are responsible for keeping track of their appointments and will be charged cancellation /non-attendance fee if they fail to keep their appointment.

Orudra Mindspace reserves the right to terminate the provider-patient relationship under the following circumstances:

• When our services are no longer required by the patient.
• When another professional might be more appropriate for the patient.
• Unacceptable behaviour by the patient/carer, like verbal abuse, threatened or actual violence, harassment and other boundary violations (as covered in detail under zero tolerance policy).
• A loss of mutual trust and respect and/or a breakdown in communication between a patient and their practitioner.
• Continual non-cooperation with the treatment recommendations.
• Criminal acts by a patient, such as obtaining drugs fraudulently.
• Trying to coerce the doctor to provide medical treatment that the doctor disagrees with.
• Unpaid fees.
• When there are too many cancellations/re-schedules.

Our Clinic collects information from patients for the purpose of providing quality health care. Patients are required to provide us with their personal details and a full medical history so that they can be properly assessed, diagnosed, and appropriately treated.

The information gathered will also be used for:

• administrative purposes
• patient billing
• compliance with legal requirements
• communication and collaboration with other health care providers involved in patients’ care, outside of our medical practice. This could encompass referral letters or the collection of de-identified statistical data for clinical audits aimed at advancing healthcare standards.

Our Patient Privacy Policy complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) as outlined at www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles

This policy helps to ensure that patients’ personal and health information is handled in a responsible and confidential manner.

As part of this policy, patients have the right to request access to their health information, as outlined in the Australian Privacy Principles. This can be done by following the process outlined on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website at www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/health-information/access-your-health-information.

At our clinic we prioritise confidentiality and ensure that patient privacy and confidentiality are respected and upheld. We value collaboration with the patients’ trusted carers and therapists to achieve this. The circumstances under which patients’ personal information will need to be disclosed are (1) legal requirements or (2) when failure to disclose may place someone at significant risk. 

Our practice does not accommodate medico-legal patients seeking assessment or treatment for legal matters intended for court submission. Our practitioners maintain the authority to decline requests for the creation of medico-legal reports.

Our Clinic is not an emergency service and as such we are unable to provide emergency care or respond to out-of-hours enquiries or emergencies. Patients understand and agree that if they are in immediate danger, they will call triple zero (000) for emergency services or seek assistance from the local hospital’s emergency department.

For non-emergency situations, if patients need advice and support for their mental health outside usual working hours, they need to contact their GP or ring the following services:

• Lifeline – 13 11 14
• Beyond Blue – 1300 224 636
• Mental Health Line – 1800 011 511 (NSW only)
• Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467