Princess Park Clinic

07/11/2025

📌Bulk Billing📌

To keep patients informed, we wanted to share the realities of the government’s new bulk billing incentives. This isn’t intended as criticism — but it’s important that our community receives accurate information.

Starting 1 November 2025, the government introduced new bulk billing incentives that reward shorter consultations and a model of care focused on throughput rather than quality — but we believe your health deserves more than quantity over quality.

At Princess Park Clinic, the practitioners who consult from our rooms value the time needed to listen, understand, and manage health concerns thoroughly. Good medicine isn’t about how many patients can be seen in a day — it’s about providing safe, personal, and considered care. It’s difficult to see how ‘six-minute medicine’ could lead to improved outcomes for patients.

While these new incentives may sound positive, they don’t come close to covering the real costs of delivering quality healthcare. Running a reputable, accredited clinic involves far more than what happens in the consultation room, it requires skilled administrative and nursing support, medical equipment, technology, supplies, insurance, and compliance. These are all essential to maintaining the standard of care patients expect and deserve.

Medicare rebate amounts have not significantly increased for many years, not even in line with CPI, and now cover only a fraction of the true cost of providing care. Unfortunately, this means there is an out-of-pocket cost to patients. At the current rebate levels, moving to a fully bulk-billed model would not meet the overheads required to keep the clinic sustainable.

Maintaining a sustainable practice also allows us to continue contributing to the future of general practice by supporting and training GP registrars and medical students. This ensures the next generation of doctors can learn in a setting that values comprehensive, community-focused medicine - something that benefits regional healthcare for years to come.

For this reason, Princess Park Clinic will continue to operate as a mixed-billing practice. This approach allows the practitioners to bulk bill eligible services while maintaining the time and quality required for more complex appointments.

We understand that healthcare costs are a concern. The clinic remains committed to keeping fees fair, offering gap-only payments upfront, and supporting patients in genuine financial need wherever possible.

We also encourage patients to contact the local Federal Member of Parliament to share how these changes affect you as this is a broader funding issue across general practice.

Thank you for your continued support and keeping patient-centred care alive in our community.

- Princess Park Clinic

05/11/2025

THIS HAS NOW BEEN FIXED

** DEAR PATIENTS **
Please be advised that the clinic telephone lines are affected by a wide outage. We have contacted the faults team who are already aware and will advise once this has been rectified.
Thank you for your patience

09/10/2025

Please be advised that the Carpark many of our patients park in will be inaccessible for a period of time during 6am-12pm on Tuesday the 14th of October 2025.
Parking, including accessible parking will still be available nearby.
If you require any assistance, please contact the clinic.

Crane works at Vaughan Street carpark, closest to the river. 🚧

Council will remove the penstock (one-way water gate) from the Vaughan Street carpark in Shepparton.

A crane will be used to complete the works safely.

🗓️ Tuesday 14 October 2025
🕕 6.00am – 12.00pm (weather permitting)

Access to Princess Park Clinic and nearby businesses will stay open during this time. Once the penstock is repaired, a second closure date will be advised for its reinstallation.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation during these important infrastructure upgrades.

26/09/2025

**Reminder**

Princess Park Clinic will be closed today, the 26th of September 2025 for the Victorian AFL Grand Final Eve Public Holiday 🦁🐱

The clinic will re-open as usual from Monday the 29th of September 2025.

For urgent care, please attend your nearest Emergency Department.

- PPC team