Pine Lodge Medical Centre is located at 10 Broughton Avenue, Castle Hill, 2154. 

Our opening hours: 
Monday: 8:30am-5:00pm
Tuesday: 8:30am-5:00pm
Wednesday: 8:30am-5:00pm
Thursday: 8:30am-5:00pm
Friday: 8:30am-5:00pm
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed
Public Holidays: Closed

Pine Lodge Medical Centre does not currently offer home visits.

Phone Calls After Hours

Please DO NOT LEAVE VOICEMAILS.

For GP medical advice beyond our current opening hours, we recommend one of these two services:

National Home Doctor Service

Call 13 74 25.

Please let them know your usual GPs name so we receive notification of the visit.

The closest Emergency Departments are at:

Hornsby Hospital

02 9477 9123

Palmerston Road, Hornsby NSW 2077

Westmead Hospital

(02) 8890 6520

Level 1, Block K/176 Hawkesbury Road, Westmead NSW 2145

Norwest Private Hospital

(02) 8882 8882

11 Norbrik Drive, Bella Vista NSW 2153

New patients are welcome to join our Medical Centre. We prefer that your first appointment is a longer appointment so that we can collect your health information and perform a thorough physical examination. Please bring any information such as results or scans that may be helpful in your care. 

We also need you to bring along some form of Photo ID, either a drivers licence, passport or a state issued photo ID will suffice.  Your Medicare Card is also required so we can enter the details into your file.  These documents take only moments to download from the government websites (see links below).  If you wish you can log onto these sites using the practice Wi-Fi.

New Patient Information Form

Please arrive 10 minutes prior to your appointment time to complete the new patient forms. Our receptionist can assist if you have any questions.

You can book your appointment on line by selecting the ‘Book An Appointment’ tab on the menu bar or call us directly. 

Alternatively, walk-in appointments can also be made.

Our standard appointment time is 15 minutes. To assist us to run as close as possible to time, please request an appointment length that matches the complexity of the concerns you wish to raise with your doctor. 

Our receptionists can also help you choose an appropriate time. If there are too many issues to deal with in the allocated time, we may need to schedule a second appointment.

Please ring as soon as you think you may need to see the doctor for an urgent matter and let reception know that the problem is urgent. We will endeavour to allocate a consultation for you as soon as possible.

We will endeavour to provide your choice of doctor and time whenever possible. For routine appointments you will usually be sent a reminder either by SMS or phone, however you are responsible for attending your appointment. If you are unable to attend for any reason, please call the Medical Centre as soon as possible to cancel your appointment. We require at least 2  hour’s notice to cancel your appointment so that we can offer it to another patient.

Each doctor has a cancellation list, and we generally have cancellations every day. Please feel free to ask to be placed on this list if you would like an earlier appointment. Our system does require you to make an appointment to be placed on this list. Should your doctor be unavailable at your appointment time we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and rearrange your appointment. 

Some appointments will require a longer time such as mental health treatment plans, health assessments and care plans. If you are coming for a specific reason, please inform our receptionist when making your appointment so that the appropriate time can be allocated.

We hope you will see us for all your health needs in order to ensure continuity in your health care. Fragmentation that results from seeing doctors outside of our practice runs the risk that important issues may be missed or managed inappropriately.

Billing Principles

Pine Lodge Medical Centre offers bulk-billing to all eligible patients with a valid Medicare card.

Patients who do not have a Medicare card will be charged a private fee of $50.00 for a standard consultation with one of the GPs.

Please contact one of our friendly receptionists for any questions you may have.

Your Responsibilities

The staff at Pine Lodge Medical Centre are committed to providing high quality care in a warm and friendly environment. As this process requires a team approach with our patients at the centre of this team, you have certain responsibilities, including the following:

• – We expect you to attend your appointments. If you are unable to attend an appointment we expect you to contact us to cancel as early as possible and give at least 2 hour’s notice.
• – You must be honest and respectful in your interactions with all our staff. We consider that our relationship is based on mutual trust and respect. Acting in a dishonest manner undermines this relationship and puts you at risk of adverse outcomes.
• – You must follow up on referrals for all investigations including pathology and radiology. This means attending for the investigation and returning to discuss results. While the Medical Centre strives to ensure all results are followed-up, it is ultimately the responsibility of the patient to ensure that they have received their results. Your doctor will inform you how this should be done. It is not sufficient to assume that everything is okay if you hear nothing.
• – You must follow up recalls and reminders sent to you. These are sent by SMS or letter or phone call and are an important tool in providing excellent care. Should you receive a notification that your doctor wants to see you, we expect you to attend an appointment to discuss the issues at your earliest convenience.
• – You should attend specialist referrals given to you. Your doctor will organise a specialist opinion when they feel that this is necessary for your care. If there are issues with attending a specialist please return to talk with your doctor about this.
• – We expect you to actively participate in achieving your health goals and follow up on advice given. We commit to working with you to achieve the best possible health outcomes but this requires your co-operation and following the advice of our medical staff. We recognise that change is difficult and we understand that it will sometimes feel impossible but we are here to help so please continue to work with us through the process.

Phone Calls or Walk-ins

The Practice will attend to you call and book appointments over the phone.

Alternatively, you can book an appointment with the GP by walking into the clinic.

Appointments can also be made online via our website or health engine.

Please advise reception if it is an urgent matter.

Booking Confirmations

The Practice will call back and confirm appointments, and follow COVID-19 Policies and Procedures by verifying our patients over the phone to keep everyone safe.

Call Backs

The Practice will pass any requested messages or phone calls to our GP’s or Allied Health by sending messages via our clinical booking system.

After Hours Phone Calls

Please DO NOT LEAVE VOICEMAILS. Call the after hours doctor service on 13 74 25 or 000 if it is an emergency.

Translation Services and Sign Language Services

These services are available to patients of the Practice. Please ask your treating GP or reception staff for more information.

Hearing Problems

Please advise reception so that the National Relay Service (NRS) can be booked for patients who are deaf (www.relayservice.com.au).

Privacy Policies

We respect and follow our policies and procedures regarding patient confidentiality.

If you require your medical records to be transferred you will need to sign a consent form, please ask reception for further information.

We frequently have medical students sitting in with our doctors and nurses. This experience is vital to their training as we prepare them to be the doctors of the future. Your permission will always be requested if there is a medical student sitting in with your doctor. Please feel free to refuse permission if you are not comfortable having a student sit-in. The student is bound by the same confidentiality as your doctor.

Our Practice is committed to preventative care.

We consider your participation in health monitoring to be an important part of your health care. We have a reminder and recall system for follow-up visits and routine health checks to assist you in this. You may receive reminders by SMS or phone.

Our surgery also participates in national/state or territory reminder systems/registers, with your consent. e.g. Australian Childhood Immunisation register, NSW Cervical Cancer screening register. If you do not wish to be included in these services please advise the doctor or practice staff.

The Practice follows policy and procedures on the management of patient health information and how full details can be obtained from the Practice.

Contact the health service provider that holds your health information to request access. Only you or another person you’ve authorised, such as a legal guardian or authorised representative, can make the request.

You may be asked to put your request in writing and for information that identifies you. You may be asked to include:

• your name and address
• the health information you want
• how you’d like to access the health information (such as, by email, paper copies or if you just want to look at the information)
• if you authorise a person or organisation to access the health information on your behalf

When should you get a response to your request?
A health service provider should respond to a request for access to your health information within a reasonable period. We generally believe 30 days is a reasonable period.

Can a health service provider refuse your request?
A health service provider can refuse to give you access to your health information in some situations, such as if:

• it may threaten your or someone else’s life, health or safety
• it may impact someone else’s privacy
• giving access would be unlawful

If giving you certain information would impact someone else’s privacy, a health service provider could block out that part and give you the rest of the information. If it’s not possible to give information directly to you because of a concern for your health or safety then they might give access through an agreed third party.

If your health service provider refuses to give you access they must give you a written notice telling you why, and how you can complain about their refusal.

How will you receive your health information?
You can ask for your health information to be given to you in a particular way — by email, phone, hard copy, electronic record, in person, letting you view it, or sending a copy to another health service provider.

If you ask for access in a way that is unreasonable or not practical, a health service provider can give it to you another way — such as on a USB stick rather than paper copies, giving you a summary of the information or allowing you to view it. Another option is to use an agreed third party.

If a health service provider refuses to give you access in the way you requested they must give you a written notice telling you why, and how you can complain about their refusal.

Is there a charge?
A health service provider may charge a fee for giving you access, but this charge can’t be excessive.

The charge may include the cost of:

• staff searching for, locating and retrieving the requested information, and deciding which health information is relevant to the request
• staff reproducing and sending the health information
• the postage or materials involved in giving access
• using an intermediary, if necessary

A health service provider can’t use this charge to discourage you from requesting access to your health information. If possible, they should tell you the likely amount of the charge.

They should also discuss with you options for changing your request to minimise the charge. For example, by changing the way they give it to you — by email rather than paper copy.

When you change your health service provider
If you want access to your health information because you are changing to another health service provider, your current health service provider might prefer to transfer your record to the new health service provider rather than giving you the information directly.

Most repeat prescriptions and all new medications will require a consultation so that the doctor can check your health and update your records. 

All new referrals and most review referral letters also require a consultation. The referral process requires a doctor to initiate the request for a specialist consultation and requires your doctor to write a detailed letter with important information including your presenting problem, history and medications. Referrals for review from a previous consultation also require a letter that includes an update of your current health issues and any relevant recent events or results.

Please note that referrals cannot be back-dated as Medicare specifically prohibits this. It is the responsibility of your specialist to ensure that you have a valid referral prior to you attending your appointment. If you attend your specialist without a valid referral the receptionist will need to call and arrange for the referral to be written prior to you seeing the doctor.

We provide assistance with communication in case of languages other than English through use of the Translation and Interpreter Service. Please advise our staff in advance if you require this assistance, so that we can organise this promptly for you. 

Pine Lodge Medical Centre is equipped to allow for wheelchair access and disabled parking spaces are available in front of the practice. We also have a disabled toilet for ease of use for patients.

We take your feedback, concerns and complaints very seriously. Please feel free to talk to your doctor, nurse or our reception staff if you have any problems. You may also contact our Contact Business Manager, Suzanne Agopian on
02 9846 2830 or use our online feedback form.

You may also choose to contact the Health Care Complaints Commission at Locked Bag 18, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 or Phone: 1800 049 153. Or, you can lodge complaints to the New South Wales Ombudsman, Phone: 02 9286 1000 www.ombo.nsw.gov.au.

We provide regular opportunities for patient feedback via questionnaires, a Suggestions Box and being responsive to verbal complaints. We welcome your comments and contributions.