Your Appointment

In order to get an appointment with Dr Tang, you will need to obtain a referral from your GP as you will also need this in order to claim your Medicare rebate.

You should bring all of the following with you for your first consultation with Dr Tang:

  • All relevant radiology films and reports
  • All recent blood test results
  • Any correspondences from your doctors
  • Your insurance details, including Medicare Card and Private Health Insurance details

Preparing for Surgery

Dr Amy Tang will perform your surgery either at The Wesley Hospital in Brisbane, or at the Greenslopes Private Hospital on the southside of Brisbane.

Once you have confirmed your surgery with Dr Tang, you should complete an Online Admission Form to register your contact details and private health fund information with The Wesley Hospital or Greenslopes Private Hospital. Alternatively you can contact the hospital’s Pre-admission Centre between 8am – 5pm Monday to Friday.

Open Surgery (Laparotomy)

If you are having an open operation (laparotomy), you will usually stay 3-4 nights in hospital. The length of stay is variable, and depends on your specific condition and the speed of your recovery. If your recovery is slow, it may be necessary for you to stay a bit longer.

Some patients requiring major surgery will need to have some pre-operative blood tests, including a “Full Blood Count” (FBC) and “Group and Hold”, so that your blood can be screened and to ensure that blood is available for transfusion in the event that it is required during your surgery. This blood test should be performed less than 7 days prior to your operation.

Day Surgery

Patients having minor procedures will be booked as “Day Surgery”. Some of these day procedures include Hysteroscopy, Dilatation and Curettage, LLETZ, Gynaecological Examination under Anaesthesia and Diagnostic Laparoscopy.

You will be observed after your surgery for a few hours in the Day Surgery Unit at The Wesley Hospital or Greenslopes Private Hospital. When you have fully recovered, you will be discharged home on the same day. Please ensure that before your operation, you have arranged a responsible adult to take you home. Under no circumstances will you be allowed to drive home yourself after Day Surgery.

Keyhole Surgery (Laparoscopy)

If you are having an “keyhole surgery” (laparoscopy), you will usually stay 1-2 nights in hospital. The length of stay is variable, and depends on your specific condition and the speed of your recovery. If your recovery is slow, it may be necessary for you to stay a bit longer.

Hospital Preadmission

Before your admission to hospital for surgery, you will be asked to provide information to the hospital which will make your hospital admission as smooth as possible.  The information collected on admission is determined in part by Commonwealth legislation, Queensland legislation, our contracts with Health Funds and the requirements of our accrediting bodies. Information you provide will be confidentially transmitted to hospital using secure 128-bit SSL encryption technology. Your Patient History Details are sent directly to a designated pre-admission area within the hospital for review and preparation of your medical record pending your arrival at hospital.

If necessary, a Registered Nurse may contact you after receipt of your information if your responses indicate further enquiry or action might be required prior to admission.

There are a number of areas where mandatory information is required to submit the online booking successfully. Therefore prior to commencing you need to have the following information ready:

Your:

  • Personal and next of kin details including your email address
  • Medicare Card
  • General practitioner details

Hospital Funding Details:

  • Private health insurance and level of cover, or
  • Workcover / third party, or
  • Veterans affairs, or
  • Self funding

Benefits details:

  • Pharmacy Benefit Card and/or Safety Net Card (if relevant)
  • Pension Card (if relevant)

Greenslopes Private Hospital

Greenslopes Private Hospital has a secure portal to book your Hospital Admission. This booking process will take about 20 minutes of your time.

Click Here to Continue

Wesley Hospital

Wesley Hospital has a secure portal to book your Hospital Admission. This booking process will take about 20 minutes of your time.

Click Here to Continue

Recovery After Your Surgery

Important things to do to help with your recovery:

  • Be as mobile as soon as possible unless otherwise instructed
  • Take simple pain relief tablets. This includes medications like Paracetamol and/or Anti-inflammatories (e.g. Ibuprofen), which should be taken regularly in the initial post-operative period. You should continue these regularly at home for a few days, so that any post-operative pain does not limit your ability to mobilise at home and recover as quickly as possible.
  • Try to avoid stress and strenuous exercise following surgery. After major surgery, most women take about 4-6 weeks off work, depending on the nature of their surgery and the nature of their work. If you require a Medical Certificate, please inform Dr Tang or email/phone one of Dr Tang’s reception staff. Dr Tang will arrange for your Medical Certificate to be posted/faxed/emailed to you.
  • Drink plenty of water, aiming for around 2 litres per day. Try to eat healthy foods.
  • Constipation is not uncommon after major surgery, but over time this should return to normal. Keeping hydrated is important, and stool softeners may be helpful.

When to Contact Dr Amy Tang

Some pain and discomfort following a surgery is normal but if you experience any of the following please contact Dr Amy Tang for an appointment:

  • Increasing redness or discharge
  • Large amount of vaginal bleeding
  • Post-operative fever (above 38 degrees celsius)
  • If the level of your pain increases significantly following your surgery

Post Operative Follow Up

A post-operative follow-up appointment with Dr Tang is important after your surgery. This allows the opportunity to check your recovery, and to ensure that your wounds have healed normally. At this appointment, Dr Tang will also discuss in detail again with you the findings of your surgery, and the procedure that was performed. Histology results from your operation will also be discussed.

Depending on the nature of your condition and surgery, this appointment may be scheduled between 2 to 6 weeks following your surgery.

Driving After Surgery

The nature of your surgery and the speed of your recovery will determine the duration of time after surgery when you should not drive.

You should not drive or operate any machinery for at least 24 hours after any general anaesthetic. If you are having “Day Surgery”, under no circumstances will you be allowed to drive yourself home following surgery.

In general, patients undergoing keyhole (laparoscopic) surgery will be able to return to driving earlier than patients undergoing open surgery (laparotomy). A rough “rule of thumb” is that most patients may return to driving when they are freely mobile without requiring pain-relief medications, and can safely depress the foot pedal of the car’s brakes without causing any pain. This depends on the nature of the surgery as well as an individual’s recovery process. For keyhole surgery, this may usually be about 2 weeks, and for open surgery, it may be up to 4-6 weeks. In any case, individual car insurance policy, and it is always essential to check with your insurance company to clarify the specific restrictions of your insurance policy.

For more specific instructions following your surgery, please discuss this with Dr Tang.

Fees and Billing

Dr Tang’s Practice charges fees for consultations and procedures in accordance with the recommendation of the Australian Medical Association (AMA). You will receive rebates from Medicare and/or your Private Health Funds, but there will be some out of pocket expenses for services provided.

Surgical Assistant’s Fees

Most major surgery require the use of a surgical assistant in order to perform your surgery. Dr Tang has a dedicated group of surgical assistants who work closely within the team. There may be out-of-pocket expenses payable to the surgical assistant.

Pathology Tests

For Inpatient Pathology Services, Dr Tang uses Pathology service providers that bulk bill directly to Medicare. There will be no out-of-pocket expenses for Inpatient Pathology Tests.

Gynaecological Surgery

A major portion of your surgical costs will be covered by your private health fund. In general, fees vary depending on the complexity of your surgery. At your pre-operative consultation, Dr Tang will provide an estimated quote based on the likely findings and procedure(s) required. However, the actual findings at the time of surgery may vary, and actual costs may vary according to the actual procedure required.

No additional fees are payable for inpatient consultations during your hospital stay following surgery.

After discharge from hospital, you will require a post-operative follow-up visit in the rooms. Dr Tang will discuss your operative findings and procedure in detail with you, as well as the final results of the histopathology.

Anaesthetic Services

There may be out-of-pocket expenses payable to the Anaesthetist on top of Health Fund rebates. This is payable directly to your Anaesthetist.

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