Why do we charge private fees?
The short answer is we would dearly love to provide free-to-use services, but can’t. In brief:
We want to protect the longer appointment times that we offer to our patients
The cost of providing our facilities, longer opening times and extended scope staff is significant
Where we can, we provide electronic results instead of requiring patients to re-attend for unnecessary results or reviews
We only engaged hand-picked, trusted doctors who offered a much higher level and quality of care, and who commit to a long-term relationship with our practice and our patients
We spent considerable time and money becoming accredited, which gives you confidence that we don’t just say we do the right things, we have proven it without a doubt and continue to strive to be the best
We invest in training and review for all staff and doctors, making sure they are at the cutting edge of the latest advances in healthcare
So how do Bulk Billing practices manage it?
Simply put, they don’t. We aren’t providing the same service - not by a long shot.
Bulk billing clinics work like a sprint race – fast, short, and focused only on the next few metres.
We’re more like a marathon – paced, planned, and designed to keep you going strong for the long run.
So, Bulk Billing practices can only make ends meet by:
By reducing appointment times to under 10 minutes and often to just five minutes per patient
By providing fewer, less qualified, minimally-paid staff
By providing basic facilities
By not getting accredited (thereby circumventing external audit and control)
By providing an inferior service
By bringing patients back more frequently for unnecessary reviews
Doctors. Done Different.
Bulk billing services simply cannot offer the level of care standards of quality assurance and rigourous medical professionalism that we deliver.
Bulk billing rebates have been historically kept very low by successive governments, and not indexed to inflation, which means year on year the amount the government contributes to appointments has gone down.
Many GP practices have had to (and continue to) close their doors over the years because they couldn’t afford to keep operating with reducing income. No business could.
The Government announced that they would introduce a “Bulk Billing incentive” to encourage more practices to bulk bill. This amounts to $5.49 per standard bulk billed appointment, split evenly between the practice and the GP, meaning instead of the $104 that we believe our services costs to provide, the government would offer us $46.64. That shortfall of almost $60 is intolerable. The only way any practice could sustain that level of loss is to reduce appointment times from 15 minutes down to 5 minutes, and attempt to see 2-3 times the number of patients. That means a massive degradation in the service we provide to you, and ultimately harms the excellent levels of care we aspire to provide.
Think of it like fine dining versus fast food. Sure, both will fill your belly. But you know one of them is going to actually cause more harm than good in the long-term. The true cost to providing top-quality healthcare is significant, and we are here to provide that service to you now and into the future.
We took the approach that we have a high standard for the care that we (and you) expect our Doctors to provide, and the provision of those quality services and care requires more time and therefore money. In order to make that time available to you, we worked out the fees that you pay, and we publish them honestly and openly on our website. And the results speak for themselves.
We are not profit-driven, and have made sure that we provide a quality, luxury service that you have come to expect from us and we offer benefits such as online script ordering (no appointment needed), telehealth appointments, free barista coffee and the luxurious waiting lounge and facilities that you all enjoy, not to mention all the hidden things like state-of-the-art medical examination and assessment equipment, the very best quality and talented staff as well as hand-picked doctors who are passionate about being the best, and who all engage with us in regular performance reviewing and clinical improvement processes.
We provide minimum 15 minute appointment slots, not the 5 or 10 you can expect elsewhere, and ultimately we want to build a lasting relationship with you that stands the test of time and allows us to be your specialist for life. We also offer discounts to children, seniors and veterans, purely because we believe that people who are most at risk or marginalised should not be prevented from accessing our services for financial reasons.
Bulk billing and large, impersonal corporate services do exist, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
In short, we believe our gaps are fair and transparent, and whenever the Government increases rebates we pass this on to our patients rather than pocketing the difference, keeping your costs as reasonable as we can possibly afford to make them.
After all, we are Doctors. Done Different.
Updated Oct 2025 by Dr Stuart Arbuckle