FAQs

Yes. Medicare requires you to have a referral to see a specialist if you wish to receive the Medicare rebate. This referral also provides Dr MacKenzie with important information about your symptoms and medical history. Simply ask you GP to provide you with a referral to see Dr Stuart MacKenzie. This referral is usually valid for 12 months. Referrals from specialists and hospitals are only valid for 3 months.

Dr MacKenzie sees patients at his private rooms in 4/2 Lingard Street, Merewether.

He attends clinics at the Belmont Specialist Centre (Belmont) and HealthHQ Port Stephens (Salamander Bay) on alternate Thursday mornings.

Call 02 4963 3393 (option 2) to make an appointment at Merewether, Belmont, or Salamander Bay.

Dr MacKenzie also has a public clinic at the John Hunter Hospital. Your GP will need to forward a referral to the Referral Management Centre at John Hunter for appointments at this clinic.

You must bring:

• the referral letter from the GP
• Medicare card
• Veterans Affairs card (if applicable)
• health fund membership details (if applicable)
• Workcover/CTP claim details and consultation approval (if applicable)

You will also need recent x-ray or scan results, preferably no older than three months. We are able to access most imaging results online if we have the name of the practice you attended. If you had your imaging outside the Newcastle/Hunter area, please advise our staff so that we can confirm access to these images before your appointment.

Private health insurance allows you and your family to access the right health services at the right time. If you require surgery, your private health insurance will pay the bulk of the costs although there may still be out-of-pocket expenses.

If you do not have private health insurance, you can still elect to have the surgery performed in the private hospital. However, you will need to cover all the hospital and surgical costs and some of this payment may be required prior to hospital admission.

Alternatively, if you are not insured you can be placed on Dr MacKenzie’s John Hunter Hospital waiting list. There is generally an approximately 12 month wait for elective surgery. Please note that John Hunter Hospital is a teaching hospital and your surgery may be performed by the training registrar under the supervision of Dr MacKenzie.

Dr MacKenzie operates at Lingard Private Hospital (Merewether) and John Hunter Hospital (Newcastle).

While face-to-face consultations are always preferred, where appropriate we are able to offer telehealth appointments to ensure that patients continue to access medical care when Covid-19 restrictions or other issues make it difficult to attend our rooms for an appointment.

Dr MacKenzie uses an Australian video telehealth platform called Coviu, a secure video consultation website developed specifically to host healthcare consultations. Any data exchanged during the call including audio, video and data, is encrypted so nobody can listen into the call.