01
Your referral
A current referral is required for an initial consultation. Your GP can send it ahead or you can bring it with you. Without one, Medicare cannot contribute to the consultation fee.
Your first appointment
What to bring, when to arrive, and what a cervical spine assessment actually involves. Most of what makes an appointment useful is decided before you walk in: a current referral, the images themselves rather than only the reports, and a clear account of what your symptoms are doing.
The short version
An initial consultation requires a current referral. A GP referral is valid for twelve months; a specialist referral for three.
Arrive 10 to 15 minutes early to complete the registration forms and a pain questionnaire.
Bring the actual X-rays and scans, not only the written reports. This is the single most useful thing you can do.
Bring your Medicare card, your health fund card and a list of your current medications.
A cervical assessment is a history, an examination and a reading of your imaging against both. All three matter.
Write your questions down beforehand. It is a short appointment and the good ones are easy to forget in the room.
10 to 15 min
Arrive that far ahead, for registration forms and a pain questionnaire.
4 things
Referral, imaging, Medicare and fund cards, medication list. That is the whole list.
12 months
How long a GP referral stays valid. A specialist referral is valid for three months.
1 day
Minimum notice asked for a cancellation, so the time can go to someone on the waiting list.
WHAT TO BRING
Four things, and one of them matters more than the rest
This is the list the practice publishes. The imaging is the one people most often leave behind, and it is the one that changes the appointment most.
02
Past and recent X-rays, scans and laboratory results
The images themselves, not only the radiologist's report. A report is somebody else's interpretation of the pictures, and a cervical assessment is largely a reading of the pictures against your examination.
03
Your Medicare card and health fund card
Medicare rebates are available with a valid Medicare card and a current referral. Bring your private health fund card as well if you have one.
04
A list of your current medications
Names and doses, including anything you take occasionally for pain or sleep. Blood thinners and anti-inflammatories matter particularly if surgery is ever discussed.
If your imaging was done elsewhere, ask the radiology practice for the images on disc or through their online portal well before the appointment. Contact and location has the address and the fax number if anything needs to be sent ahead.
ON THE DAY
How the appointment runs
BEFORE
Arrive 10 to 15 minutes early
The practice asks for that much time to complete patient registration forms and a pain questionnaire. Rushing in on the hour means doing the paperwork during your own appointment.
FIRST
The history
What the symptoms are, where exactly they are felt, what makes them better and worse, how they have changed, and what treatment has already been tried. This is where most of the diagnosis comes from.
THEN
The examination
Power, reflexes and sensation in the arms, and often the legs and your walking as well. Cord signs are found on examination rather than on a scan, which is why this part is not optional.
FINALLY
The imaging, read against both
A scan is interpreted alongside the history and the examination, not instead of them. Where the report, the images and the findings disagree, working out which one explains your symptoms is the substance of the appointment.
Why the cervical spine is assessed this way is set out in why the cervical spine is different.
WORTH WRITING DOWN
Six questions to take in with you
Appointments are short and it is easy to leave with the diagnosis and none of the context. These are the questions people most often wish they had asked.
What is actually causing this?
Which level, which structure, and which of your symptoms it explains. A specific answer is more useful than a diagnosis label.
What happens if I do nothing?
There should be a real answer. For a lot of neck and arm pain it is that it will probably settle over weeks to months. For cord compression it usually is not.
What should I try first?
Most cervical problems settle without an operation. Ask what the non-surgical plan is, how long to give it, and what would count as it not working.
What should I watch for?
The specific changes that would mean coming back sooner rather than waiting for the next review. Worsening weakness and clumsy hands are usually on that list.
If surgery is raised, what are the alternatives?
Including not operating. If a fusion is proposed, ask whether a motion-preserving option was considered and what ruled it out.
What will it cost?
For the consultation, and for anything proposed after it. Fees, gap schemes, estimates for uninsured patients and payment plans are all reasonable things to ask about directly.
Bring the images, not just the report
It is the most common gap and the one that costs the most. Radiology practices will release the images on a disc or a link if you ask for them, and it is worth doing that before the appointment rather than on the day.
IF PLANS CHANGE
Cancelling, rescheduling, or coming in remotely
If you need to cancel
Telephone the office during business hours and allow at least one day's notice, so that your appointment time can be offered to another patient on the waiting list. Reception is open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm.
Contact the rooms ›If you cannot get to Brisbane
Telehealth consultations are available to patients residing in Medicare-approved regions. A telehealth appointment covers the history and the imaging well, and cannot cover the physical examination, which matters more in the neck than in most places.
How telehealth works ›COMMON QUESTIONS
What people ask before the first visit
How long does the appointment take?
A specialist consultation is not long, which is exactly why the preparation matters. Arriving 10 to 15 minutes early for the forms, and having your questions written down, buys you back most of the time people feel they lost.
Do I really need the discs, or is the report enough?
Bring the images. The report is one radiologist's interpretation of them. A cervical assessment involves looking at the pictures alongside your examination, and that cannot be done from a summary.
Will I get a diagnosis on the day?
Often, because in the cervical spine the history and examination do most of the work. Sometimes further imaging or a nerve conduction study is needed first, and occasionally the useful outcome is ruling something out.
Should I bring someone with me?
Many people find it helpful, particularly if surgery might be discussed. A second person remembers different things, and it is easier to talk a decision through afterwards with someone who was in the room.
What if my referral has expired?
A GP referral lasts twelve months and a specialist referral three months. If yours has lapsed you will need a new one for the Medicare rebate to apply. Reception can tell you exactly what to ask your GP for.
Does an appointment mean I am going to be offered surgery?
No. Most cervical problems are treated without an operation, and a consultation is as often about establishing that nothing needs doing as it is about planning something.
NEXT
Where to go from here
Request an appointment
One short form, or a phone call to reception. What you need in order to be seen, and what happens after you send it.
Go to the form ›Do I need neck surgery?
What has to be true before an operation belongs in the conversation, and what can safely be watched instead.
Work through it ›Costs and fees
How consultation and surgery fees work in Australian private practice, what Medicare and health funds cover, and what to ask about directly.
See how it works ›About this information
The referral requirements, arrival time, what to bring and cancellation notice on this page are as published by the practice. The description of what an assessment involves is general information about cervical spine consultations rather than a commitment about your own appointment. More about Dr Tollesson.
Bring the images, the referral and your questions. The rest is straightforward.
Reception is open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm, and the office will contact you within the next business day after an online enquiry.