The Union Health Centre is a Family medical practice. It provides high quality, affordable health care to workers, beneficiaries and their families.

The centre is a non-profit organisation. Prices vary between centres. Adult doctor consultations start from $10.00.

Free consultations are offered for children under six and secondary school students under 18! Higher fees may be charged for people who are not registered as patients with the centre. Doctor and nurse consultations by appointment

General medical care Maternity care and family planning services Child health services Accident and emergency care Minor surgery After hours care to registered patients in emergencies Health Education and advice on diet, diabetes control, asthma control and how to stop smoking

• All union members and their families

Union Health Centres set their charges to accommodate the needs of the population they service. Their charges are substantially lower than other practices in the areas in which they operate .
Doctor Co-payments are based on the level of patient subsidy available from the government. In Union Health practices the General Medical Subsidy (GMS) dictates the level of co-payment a patient pays when visiting the doctor .

For example if a community services card holding adult patient is subsidised by the government at the level of $15 each visit. Based on a visit cost to the practice of $30 the practice will charge the difference, in this case the patient would pay fifteen dollars .

If a non - community services card holding patient visits the doctor no GMS is available therefore the entire cost of the visit is borne by the patient and they would pay $30.

One of Union Health’s basic operating principles is to keep patient co-payments as low as possible. As a result cost per visits are usually maintained at below break even level so funding must be found from other sources to maintain the viability of the practice .

A variance in co-payment levels between Union Practices exist throughout the country .This is sometimes based on the levels of card holding patients attending the practice which in turn may reflect the population the practice services. Other issues such as the level of staff to patient ratio may influence the level of co-payments a practice charges its patients.

All union practices operate within the same principal that charges to our patients are held at the lowest levels possible.

Brent Morrissey
Otara Union Health Centre

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