Consultant Psychiatrist
MBBS, MD, DCP, FRANZCP
Profile: https://fcsc.com.au/dr-joe/

Please take the time to read the important information below regarding your consultation/s with Dr Joe Varghese.

If you have any questions while reading this information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are not an emergency or crisis service. If you are in crisis or require immediate attention, contact your local mental health service, or visit your local emergency department. For medical emergencies call 000.

Your first or returning consultation with our psychiatrists could take up to 60 minutes. During the consultation your psychiatrist will be:

1. Discussing your concerns and exploring your history and symptoms to achieve diagnostic clarity.

2. Discussing treatment options and deciding on a plan that suits you and meets your recovery goals.

3. Answering any queries/concerns you may have.

CONSULTATION FEES are not negotiable and payment needs to be paid in full. No further appointments or requests will be provided unless payment is made. No WorkCover or Third-Party payments will be accepted.

THIRD-PARTY OR MEDICO-LEGAL REPORTS will NOT be provided. Dr Varghese will only communicate with your referring doctor.

PRESCRIPTIONS for Benzodiazepines will NOT be provided, e.g. Alprazolam, Valium etc.

GP REFERRALS are valid for 12 months. Specialist referrals are only valid for 3 months. A referral will be required for all consultations. Should you be discharged back to the care of your GP, your referral will cease. To re-establish care with your psychiatrist, you will need to obtain a new referral.

COURTESY SMS REMINDERS are sent prior to your appointment. As these reminders are a courtesy, please also note your appointment to avoid forgotten appointments. If an appointment is missed with reason being no reminder, fees do apply. If you would like to opt out of SMS reminders, please be sure to let us know.

LATE CANCELLATIONS OR NON-ATTENDANCE FEES apply if you do not attend your appointment or cancel on the day of your appointment. This fee must be paid prior to rebooking. You can cancel your appointment via phone, voicemail, or email. If you are enrolled for our automatic SMS reminders, reply NO.

ATTENDING YOUR APPOINTMENT can be done in person or via video call. We are located at SHOP 1, 12 EXECUTIVE DRIVE, BURLEIGH WATERS; under the Varsity Views Apartments on the ground floor. We suggest arriving for your appointment 10 minutes early to settle in and complete any outstanding paperwork.

If you would like to attend via video call, our clinic policy is a Skype test call must occur prior to booking an appointment. Please call 0755221268 to organise a test call. Please create a Skype account prior to calling. 

You will need:

– a quiet, private room

– a computer, tablet or smartphone with a microphone and a camera.

– a fast and reliable internet connection

SKYPE NAME: dr.joeavarghese, https://join.skype.com/invite/g9xWPS5W7fd7

At the time of your appointment, you will need to call Dr Varghese directly via Skype.

ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY is applied to all forms of communication. We do not tolerate any forms of abuse or aggression towards any staff member. Our staff have the right to cease the relationship between clinic and patient immediately should a patient or a proxy of the patient not adhere to this policy.

CONTACT US Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm AEST via phone 0755221268 OR email admin@fcsc.com.au. We are closed on national holidays and Queensland public holidays.

If you attempt to call us, please leave a voicemail and we will return your call as soon as possible.

If no voicemail is left, we are not aware of your call.

PRIVACY POLICY

Introduction

We are committed to protecting the privacy of patient information and to handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant

State and Territory privacy legislation (referred to as privacy legislation).

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information, how you may access that information and how you may seek the correction of any information.

From time to time, we may make changes to our policy, processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information. We will update this Privacy Policy to reflect any changes.

Collection

We collect information that is necessary and relevant to provide you with medical care and treatment, and manage our medical clinic. This information may include your name, address, date of birth, gender, health information, family history, credit card and direct debit details and contact details. This information may be stored on our computer medical records system and/or in handwritten medical records.

Wherever practicable we will only collect information from you personally. However, we may also need to collect information from other sources such as treating specialists, radiologists, pathologists, hospitals, or other health care providers.

We collect information in various ways, such as over the phone, or in writing, or in person in our clinic. This information may be collected by medical and non-medical staff.

In emergency situations we may also need to collect information from your relatives or friends.

We may be required by law to retain medical records for certain periods of time depending on your age at the time we provide services.

Use and Disclosure

We will treat your personal information as strictly private and confidential. We will only use or disclose it for purposes directly related to your care and treatment, or in ways that you would reasonably expect that we may use it for your ongoing care and treatment. For example, the disclosure of blood test results to your specialist or requests for x-rays.

There are circumstances where we may be permitted or required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties. For example, to Medicare, Police, insurers, solicitors, government regulatory bodies, tribunals, courts of law, hospitals, debt collection agents, the electronic transfer of prescriptions service or to the Myhealth record system.

We may disclose information about you to outside contractors to carry out activities on our behalf such as an IT service provider, solicitor or debt collection agent. We impose security and confidentiality requirements on how they handle your personal information. Outside contractors are required not to use information about you for any purpose except for those activities we have asked them to perform.

Data Quality and Security

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, compete, up to date and relevant. For this purpose, our staff may ask you to confirm that your contact details are correct when you attend a consultation. We request that you let us know if any of the information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date.

Personal information that we hold is protected by:

Securing our premises;

Placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information from unauthorised interference, access, modification, and disclosure.

Corrections

If you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, we ask that you contact us in writing.

Access

You are entitled to request access to your medical records. We request that you put your request in writing and we will respond to it within a reasonable time.

There may be a fee for the administrative costs of retrieving and providing you with copies of your medical records.

We may deny access to your medical records in certain circumstances permitted by law, for example, if disclosure may cause a serious threat to your health or safety. We will always tell you why access is denied and the options you have to respond to our decision.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about the privacy of your personal information (including complaints about our use of the Myhealth record system), we request that you contact us in writing. Upon receipt of a complaint, we will consider the details and attempt to resolve it in accordance with our complaints handling procedures.

Contact

Please direct any queries, complaints, requests for access to medical records to:

Emily, Manager

admin@fcsc.com.au