In accordance with Medicare regulations, appointments can only be made once you have provided our practice with a valid, up to date referral from either your GP or specialist. Referrals may be sent by email or fax. Once our office has received your referral, we will respond promptly (usually within 2 business days), to assist you in making an appointment. If the matter is urgent, you may phone the practice for an appointment, though a valid referral is still required. If your referring doctor has given you a referral, you may send it through as a PDF document via the portal below. Contact details are Email: info@eastmelbournegastro.com.au or fax: 03 9416 3023 Phone: 0394174244 If you need to change an existing appointment, please contact the office as soon as possible so that the time can be allocated to other patients
Please note our specialists do not provide Email correspondence for clinical matters or concerns. Consultative advice can only be provided at the time of an appointment.
All appointments with a specialist require an up-to-date referral from your GP or specialist. We do not make any appointments without first having a referral.
Please call the rooms on 9417 4244 if you wish to make any changes to your scheduled appointments or procedure dates as soon as you know you cannot make your appointment. We have a wait list and can allow others to see the specialists if you cannot make your appointment.
Different health insurance policies provide different levels of cover for private hospital services. If you are unsure if the service will be covered by your health fund, please contact your health fund/health insurer directly. You may be asked what item numbers apply. Our office can advise you which item numbers apply, and the most common ones are: colonoscopy - item number 32222 gastroscopy - item number 30473
The total cost of elective day case procedures consists of the endoscopist’s fee as well as hospital admission charges, anaesthetist and pathologist’s fees. These charges may incur out of pocket costs that are not fully covered by your health insurance. Please call our office on 94174244 for details about the endoscopist’s charges, but you will need to contact the other providers yourself for the remaining fees. If you have been booked onto a theatre list for a procedure and then discover that you are not covered by your health fund, please contact the office immediately to discuss alternative options. If you are uninsured (i.e., do not have private health insurance), the costs of having procedures at a private facility can be considerable. You can discuss other options with your specialist at the time of your appointment.
If you are a new patient to the practice and have no underlying medical condition and are not on any regular medication, your GP may refer you directly for a procedure without a need for a pre-existing consult / appointment with our specialists. Our doctors will decide if this option is appropriate once they receive a referral letter. In general, it is strongly recommended that an appointment is made with our specialists in advance of having a procedure if you have any underlying medical conditions (such as diabetes, heart or lung disease), or if you are are on regular medication such as diabetic drugs, blood thinners, oxygen therapy or weight loss medication. If you are a pre-existing patient of the practice and have been issued with a reminder from our office that a follow up procedure is due, it may not be necessary to have an appointment with our doctors beforehand provided there has been no significant change in your health or medication. In these cases, you must still advise the office of your list of medications since some must be discontinued beforehand. Please note : you MUST advise our office if you have received ANY overseas medical care within the previous 12 months since hospital policies require additional swab testing before the procedure can be performed.
Please bring any test results, scans, reports etc. that you have had done recently so that we can add these to your file for review. Please also bring a complete list of your current medications including the following:
Some of our clinicians use a software that uses AI as a dictation software that does not record of store information. If you do not want to have this feature then please inform the reception staff when checking in.
