The Patients
The practice sees between 800 and 1000 patients per week across the two locations. The clientele at Proserpine comprises mainly farmers, rural workers and townspeople. There are a number of out-of-town patients referred to Mario for ultra-sounds, but in general, Proserpine is a steady, routine rural general practice. The Airlie Beach patient base has a high proportion of itinerant workers and tourists, but also has a substantial core of permanent residents. Paul’s obstetric interest gives the practice a number of antenatal patients, while the nature of a tourist resort population ensures a steady flow of minor acute injuries and conditions. The age demographics across the practice are evenly spread, with no predominance of one group over another, though there is a slight skewing to the under 20’s. Basically, WDS represents a broad-based general practice, with scope to see an extensive cross-section of clinical material from the mundane to the exotic. There is opportunity for GPs to indulge in any sub-speciality in which they have a particular skill or interest.

Surgery Hours
Each surgery operates from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Proserpine has consulting hours from 8am to 10:30am on Saturdays, but is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Airlie Beach is open 11am to 1pm on Saturdays. But is closed Sundays and public holidays. An after hours on-call service is provided via mobile phone through a roster of all doctors in the practice. The practice also supervises the nursing staff on six off-shore Island resorts via phone consultations.

Hospital Visiting
Proserpine has a new (opened September 1998), luxurious 35-bed hospital which is medically staffed by five doctors for public patients. Frans attends private patients admitted for WDS, and performs daily rounds between 7.30 and 8am. He also sees patients admitted later in the day as necessary, but any doctor in the practice may visit their own in-patients should they so wish. Paul routinely visits his postnatal obstetric patients. Hospital patients needing scans are referred to Mario Vlasic, and Paul Squires performs approximately 60% of all anaesthetics given at the hospital. Paul also carries out about 50% of hospital deliveries, the remainder being public patients who are delivered by the hospital medical staff. Caesarian sections are performed either by visiting obstetricians or hospital medical staff, with Paul giving the anaesthetic and Frans assisting. The practice relationship with the hospital is co-operative and harmonious.

Consultants
There are no full-time consultants available in Whitsunday, but consultants in some specialities visit the hospital on an intermittent basis. Those represented include O&G, orthopaedics, paediatrics, cardiology, and psychiatry. The frequency of these visits varies from weekly to quarterly. For other specialities, or for consultations needed between visits, patients are referred to either Mackay or Townsville.

Appointments
The practice runs on an appointment system. Naturally, as in any General Practice, there are occasions when urgent or emergency cases need to be fitted in. These patients are assessed by the experienced staff and seen as they present. Except under these circumstances, all consultations are by appointment, including weekends and holidays. Appointments are booked at 4 – 5 per hour, but when demand requires or doctor staffing is short, ‘extras’ are added to the standard bookings. Longer times are allocated for non-routine conditions as required.

Patient Billing
WDS is a private practice, that is, we are not a “bulk-billing” clinic. Philosophically, the practice is opposed to wholesale bulk billing. We use Medicare vouchers for long-term patients who are age pensioners, we charge reduced fees to Health Care Card holders, and others may be charged discounted fees at the discretion of the treating doctor. However, we do not routinely bulk-bill patients and are pursuing an active policy to reduce the percentage of bulk-billed accounts in the practice. For the most part, modified AMA fees are charged for all services. Veterans are treated under the Veteran Affairs system, and pensioners other than age Pensioners are decided on merit. As a general rule, patients are asked to pay for consultations at the time the service is provided. In an area where there are many itinerant workers, patients who claim their condition is work-related are also asked to pay at the time and be reimbursed by their employer or Workcover when they submit the relevant paper work.

Computerisation
The practice has a networked computerised system across the two locations which handles patient registrations, appointments, accounting, statistical data and patient billing. The practice is entirely computerised with PC’s on all desks for clinical notes and script writing.