Healthy One Medical is Closing

Healthy One Medical is to close near the end of July 2023. The last consulting day is 26/7/2023 and there are no bookings beyond this date.

Dr Barnett is to take up a new medical work role interstate.
Unfortunately, there is no medical practitioner to take over the practice at Carrington NSW.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate for some people this is a little upsetting and traumatic. For this we do apologise.

Please read the details below to answer your questions.

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SPECIALISTS AND PARAMEDICALS SENDING CORRESPONDENCE TO HEALTHY ONE MEDICAL
Please do not send documents after 27/7/2023. Please speak with the patient and seek advice on the location of their new GP and send your information to the new treating GP.

Items sent to Healthy One Medical will not be viewed by a Doctor and so important health details could be missed.

Accordingly, for patient safety, please redirect the correspondence to the patient’s chosen new GP surgery.
Thank you to our patients!
It has been my great privilege to have worked in the Hunter Area for about 25 years and had many lovely people professionally entrust me with their medical care. It is with the greatest respect I thank you for this trust and privileged opportunity from so many patients.

I sincerely thank you.

Thank you to the many patients & neighbours in the Carrington area and surrounds who made Healthy One Medical feel welcomed and supported our endeavours.
I apologise to the surrounding businesses whose sales of coffee, pastry, wraps and other delights to me and HOM staff will reduce just a little as we close.. : -)).

Sincerely,
Dr Craig Barnett

Your Future Medical Care

Everything you need to know about your future medical care.
Who should I see for my future care?
We unfortunately cannot give recommendations to other options for care.
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Sadly, there is a shortage of skilled General Practitioners, so you may need to hunt around to find a practice
who can take over your care. We apologise for this.

General Practitioners see a range of serious difficulties for our patients. Some of these difficulties include;
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  • Low Medicare Rebates; The amounts of money rebated to You – as the patient - by The Australian Govt Medicare system are out of step with costs of medical service delivery. Many in Australian communities are finding attending health care is now simply unaffordable. ( https://ama.com.au/sites/default/files/documents/Fees%20Gap%20Poster.pdf )
  • Care block – Persons with limited funds and who are without private health insurance are languishing
    on long state hospital clinic waiting lists (. For 1-2 years or more) just to see a specialist. This seems to
    get no attention from our political systems.
  • Doctor numbers & Geographical equity: Possibly the medical profession at large places excessive
    barriers to training specialists leading to shortages & geographical accumulation of specialists in major
    city locations, leaving country areas understaffed.
Many Australians are missing out on good basic healthcare because of these circumstances.
Can Healthy One Medical transfer my key medical information?
In many instances Healthy One Medical Patients’ have a Fed Govt My Health Record; this then means that
many items about your health can be accessed by You (if you have a MyHR) and or your new medical provider (provided you consent for the medical practitioner to access the MyHR record).
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Where needed, your new Medical Practitioner can write to Healthy One Medical for additional information,
provided your consent is given for this. There is a fee for record transfers to cover administrative costs. See
below.
What are my options for care between now and when I find a new GP?
We unfortunately cannot give recommendations for options for GP care.
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Sadly there is a shortage of skilled General Practitioners reflecting a range of difficulties that are faced the
profession. These include the tiny Medicare rebate that patients receive for professional medical care. Your
Medicare rebate is now often less than ½ the charge Doctors need to levy to cover their costs.
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In the meantime, whilst you are finding a doctor, you may wish to consider:
  • Health Direct (Fed. Govt): Ph: 1800 022 222
  • Newcastle GP Access After Hours: Ph: 1300 130 137 - only for GP items that cannot wait for routine bookings. This service is not for routine referrals or care plans.
  • HEAL Private emergency clinic: Ph: 1300 090 009 - see their website.
In crisis situations, please consider:
  • NSW Mental Health Line: 1800 011 511
  • Lifeline: 13 11 14
  • Beyond Blue Help Line: 1300 22 4636
  • Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800
  • Mens Help Line: 1300 78 99 78
  • Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
  • National Domestic, Family, and Sexual Violence Counselling Service: 1800 737 732
  • In an emergency situation, please call 000 immediately.
Can Healthy One Medical provide a new referral or pathology test?
Sorry, we cannot oblige this.
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A GP referral to specialist (and others) provides two items:
  1. Professional communication to the specialist about the concern and where to send their report and recommendations to;
  2. Fulfillment of Medicare requirements to allow you - the patient - to claim part or all of the specialist consultation fee back from Medicare.
The practice at Healthy One Medical is to close at the end of July 2023. Accordingly correspondence from the specialist, and more importantly actions needed because of the specialist's report cannot be actioned by Healthy One Medical as your GP.
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Please seek a new GP for these referrals so that the specialist knows where to write to and any actions
important to your health care are followed and passed on to you accordingly.
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Seeing your new GP for these referrals is a great way to meet them and start the professional relationship.
Can Healthy One Medical provide a GP Mental Health Plan or a Care Plan & EPC Referral?
Sorry, we cannot oblige this.
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These structures are vehicles designed solely by the Medicare System (Aust Govt) to document care processes and enable you – the patient – to access other Medicare funding. Intrinsic in these is some expectation the care planning and the GP billing the items will both deliver the service and be taking the intent of your plan forwards.

Healthy One Medical and Dr Barnett have no other doctor to field this responsibility. Accordingly, it would be in bad financial faith for these types of items to be completed when knowingly Dr Barnett and Healthy One Medical cannot follow the plan forwards.
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Please seek a new GP for these types of Medicare arrangements & associated documents.

Your Medical Records

Information on transferring your medical records and documents.
How do I transfer my medical files?
There are two main ways to facilitate the transfer of medical files.

For some patients, we have been fortunate to see you before closure. Dr Barnett will often try to provide a summary, and email this to the patient as part of the consultation process. The patient can then decide where this file goes.
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For other patients, the normal process is:
  • See your new chosen GP
  • If your new GP feels it is relevant, they can write to Healthy One Medical asking for information. Your consent to this information being shared must be on the document.
  • We will assemble the information, then contact you for payment.
  • Once payment is made, the documents will be released to you - the patient.
Please note that Healthy One Medical supplies these documents as a PDF in digital format only, and does not print or fax these files.

On rare occasions, and at Healthy One Medical's sole discretion, records may be printed for elderly patients or those who do not have an email address.
Warning about file transfers
WARNING
Importing large files (sometimes reaching into the gigabyte range) into clincal software may create difficulty for a practice's internal IT infrastructure. Healthy One Medical cannot accept responsibility for this, and use of the file is at the receiver's discretion.
What is transferred?
When you came to Healthy One Medical as a new patient, you may recall we did not transfer your prior GP medical file. This is because it is often unnecessary, and within 100-200+ pages of documents there will be only 3 or 4 pages that are helpful to your medical care.
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(To give you a sense of how this operates for Doctors: At home do you need your 2018 grocery shopping list, and the receipt from petrol in 2021? However, the housing loan or rental agreement document is important even if old. Medical files have huge volumes of notes but only a tiny fraction is helpful to ongoing medical care!)
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We also warn against the whole file transfer due to the large file sizes – see technical notes below.
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Similarly, as much as possible, when Dr Barnett sees you, or otherwise in say telehealth, assembling a
meaningful summary of your health will be a priority part of the consultation.
What are the fees associated with assembling records for transfer, personal use, or for use with a new GP?
The practice charges a fee of $33.00 (GST included) for transfer of a file summary. This is billed to the patient
consenting for the transfer. The information is released once the invoice is paid and a consent is received.
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The normal process is the NEW treating Doctor writes to us with your consent. We will then contact you for
payment and assemble the file. (see above "How do I transfer my medical files?").
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[In the special need for the “entire file” then the fee is $99.00 (GST included) for any file more than 50 pages in total length. This process is time intensive. The “entire file” is rarely needed for medical care and the file size is often very large and likely (if imported on mass) may damage other medical software systems.]
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Charges for legal file extracts, and file preparations relating to insurance and workers compensation matters
will be charged at normal NSW gazetted Workcover rates.
Technical issues about the file transfer
The file transfer is provided as a PDF.
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Healthy One Medical cannot provide CDs, XML files, or program-specific database or export files (i.e. Medical Director or Best Practice software patient files)

There are over 60 major medical software systems used in Australia. Medical software is not inter-operable, so it is unfortunately not as simple as transferring a Word document between computers.
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The My Health Record, though a little clunky, is interoperable! For patients with My Health Record set up, a new GP will be able to access your medical records once you have given your consent.

The Australian Federal Govt, State Health Bodies and the medical profession, have sadly failed to agree and
enforce standard “railway tracks” for medical communication despite having spent some millions on developing standards and agreeing on the importance of interoperable communication capability.
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So completely unlike email, banks, telephone systems, medical professionals have no agreed processed for
reliably moving correspondence, reports, pathology etc between Doctors & their locations. Medical
information technology more resembles old fashioned railways where every company has its own rules and
gauge of railway line meaning information cannot be reliably, quickly or safely moved.