Welcome to the Blackwood Clinic

For over 50 years our family general practice has provided quality health care to local hills residents and is particularly convenient to access for those in Belair, Flagstaff Hill, Coromandel Valley and Aberfoyle Park. The Blackwood Clinic is a fully accredited general practice with experienced General Practitioners who provide a complete and personal approach to patients medical needs with a focus on preventative medicine and active health promotion. Our nursing team work in close collaboration under the guidance of our GPs to deliver this quality service.

Coronavirus Update - 27/7/20

The Blackwood Clinic is offering face to face AND telehealth medical consultations. Simply book via our helpful administration staff or online.

All RESPIRATORY presentations will be managed over the phone
In order to keep our patients and our staff safe during this global pandemic, anyone with respiratory symptoms must not attend the clinic.

Respiratory symptoms include any of the following, even if they are very mild:

runny nose
sore throat
cough
shortness of breath
fevers
loss of taste/smell

We recommend anyone with respiratory symptoms to present for a Covid-19 swab, and your doctor can help you with this. Flinders Medical Centre and Mt Barker Hospital does not need a referral for a Covid-19 test. The drive through clinic at Repat will require a phone consultation and a referral.

If you are presenting with an unrelated issue and you develop ANY cold and flu symptom, you must inform our staff and NOT attend the clinic in person. It doesn't matter if your symptoms are extremely mild.

There are situations when the Doctors will attend to respiratory symptoms in person, but that occurs only after a telephone consultation, and usually after a negative Covid-19 swab has been demonstrated.

Telehealth Medicare changes as of 20/7/2020
Medicare will now only provide telehealth rebates to existing patients of the clinic. The Australian Government views this as being seen in person at our clinic within the last 12 months. If you have not been seen within this time frame or are a new patient, and you wish to be consulted via telehealth, you will be charged the full cost of the consult. This new rule does not apply to children less than 12 months old.

For the majority of patients who have been seen in the last 12 months, The Blackwood Clinic will endeavour to bulk bill telehealth consultations where possible. However, the medicare rules regarding this are complex, and there may be situations when a gap is required.

COVID VACCINATIONS

We are receiving a large amount of phone calls to the clinic asking about when and how patients can receive the covid-19 vaccine. Whilst we understand this is an emotive topic, we currently dont have all of the information or answers to be able to give people the exact details of the roll out as they have not been fully determined by the government.

Whilst Blackwood Clinic strives to keep our patients and community as well informed as possible, we would kindly direct people to consider reviewing the current information on the SA Health website which has information and FAQs, rather than calling the clinic, as admin staff can be very busy dealing with other health issues and emergencies.

Covid-19 vaccine

The overall roll out of the vaccines, who will be eligible when, what conditions/occupations will be classed as higher risk and how soon all of this will occur is clearly very complicated. As a clinic we are still unsure whether we will receive vaccines to be able to deliver directly to patients. The complexity and logistics of an individual clinic giving and monitoring a new vaccine mean that it may not be feasible for Blackwood Clinic to be a vaccination hub without significantly impacting the day to day running of the clinic and this having a knock on effect with how we treat our patients.

Obviously if it is felt that a resonable balance in this area is possible, we would love to be part of the broader covid-19 vaccination schedule in some capacity and we are strongly in favour of widespread vaccination to help reduce the huge medical issues associated with covid-19 infection.

Until we have more information about the overall logistics of the vaccine program, we cannot give more detailed advice about the timing of vaccines and how they will be given. Obviously each person and case will be individual-if you wish to discuss this in person then please consider booking a face to face consult or telephone consult(if you are eligible) to discuss further with a doctor.

Announcement-David Llewelyn Retirement 19/10/2020

The Blackwood Clinic would like to inform patients that David has retired due to medical reasons.

A message from David to all staff and patients:

"I wish to announce my sudden retirement for health reasons. Just a continuance of the little journey I have had for the past 4 years or so. It has been a privilege and pleasure knowing each of you, imparting a bit of wisdom at times, but learning so much more. You whom I have known well will know what high regard I hold you in. I must thank all the past and present staff and colleagues who have made the journey so enjoyable"

All of us here at the Blackwood Clinic wish to thank David for his outstanding service to his patients.

David is and will always be the most caring and sincere doctor, it has been a privilege to work with David.

We wish David, Michelle and their family all the love and support.