Thank you and Wishing you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year Hey there, We hope you're having a fantastic time getting ready for the holidays! As we close out another year, we want to take this moment to thank you for your support. We are looking forward to continuing to serve you and our local community in the coming year and beyond. We've got some cool news and important updates to share with you. Awesome Achievements: Three of our incredible doctors have recently been awarded GP Fellowship with the Royal New Zealand College of GPs! A big congratulations to Dr. Eve Fitzgerald, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Busaidi, and Dr. Beth Shore. 🎉 This is a big deal and a huge accomplishment for them! Exciting Addition to Our Team: In addition to these updates, we'd like to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Melanie Nilsen! She'll be covering for Dr. Isobel Platt, who has just had a beautiful baby boy and will be on maternity leave until July 2024. Dr. Melanie is a fantastic addition to our team, and we're confident you'll feel well taken care of under her guidance. Changes to our Clinic Fees: We've also got some important news about changes to our clinic fees starting in the New Year. We've had some challenges with getting enough funding from the government, and it's making it a bit tricky for us. So, we're making a few adjustments to make sure we can keep giving you the best care. Here's what's changing... Missed Appointment Fee (DNA): For kids under 14: $10 For teens (14-17 years old): $20 For adults (18 and older): $30 Medication Script Fee for Kids: We will be charging for all prescriptions completed by a GP or Dietitian. If your child takes regular medications we'll need you to fill out a form for a special allowance so MSD can help you cover the cost of it. Let us know if you need help with this. Pain Relief medication for children 13 years and under, may still be available without an appointment to see a Doctor. Referral Fees: If we have to send you to a specialist outside of your regular appointment, there will be a fee starting at $35. Sometimes we get a lot of information back from the specialist and/ or we have to do extra things like order tests, so there will be an extra fee for that. INR charges: Previously we have used a "package of care" where we charged the patient $50 after the 5th dosing and instructions were given. We will now be charging patients on Warfarin $12.50 per time. Communication with your GP outside of a consult: We know sometimes you have a quick question for the Dr or are looking fir some extra advice, please be aware that any form of communication may be chargeable depending on the amount of work involved for them. This includes contact via Manage my health, email or a message passed on from our Reception team. Information around Appointments: We are continuing to run our Acute morning and afternoon infectious steams next year for people who need an appointment a bit more urgently than others. These clinics have limited spaces available each day so once they fill up we will need to recommend you try the 24 hour surgery or the emergency department. We have a couple of other wee reminders around appointment bookings we'd like to tell you about again... Tightening up on timeframes: We appreciate that you don't want to come and see us all the time, however, we can't cover everything in one appointment! Please be reminded that a standard consult with Government subsidy is only 15 minutes long which is only enough time to concentrate on one issue. Please prioritise what you'd like to discuss and don't be offended if we are ask you to book another appointment or two to go over the other things you'd like dealt with. unfortunately, if you use more time than we've allowed for on the day we will need to charge you at the unsubsidised rate of $30 per 5 minutes. We do offer double appointments if you need one. Just ask one of our Receptionists if you would like more information and pricing around this. Prepayment requirements: If you miss three appointments without letting us know, we'll kindly ask you to pay for your appointment when you book it. We understand things can come up, but this will help us manage our schedule better. We know changes like these can be a bit of a bother, and we're sorry for any inconvenience. Your health is super important to us, and these changes are necessary to make sure we can keep giving you the best care. If you have any questions or concerns about anything we've shared here, just give our front desk team a call. We really appreciate your understanding and support. Wishing you an awesome holiday season and a super healthy New Year! Ngā mihi, Village Health Team