Information for Prospective patient enquiries

Psychiatry Services

To continue providing the best possible care and support to our current patients, we are taking a short pause on accepting new patient referrals until February 2026. This allows us to give our existing patients the attention they deserve. We truly appreciate your understanding and look forward to welcoming new patient referrals from February 2026.

Our psychiatrists are unable to complete ADHD assessments or ADHD medication reviews for new patients in 2026.

We are not set up as a crisis service provider and are unable to provide emergency appointments.

Please see the numbers below for crisis support services.

Please note: If you have seen any of our Doctors in the past two years at a different location, as either an inpatient or outpatient, we will still need a GP referral sent to our clinic prior to making any appointments. The same process will apply for all new patients at our clinic. Your GP referral will be triaged and we will advise if our Doctors have capacity to take you on as a patient.

Counselling services

Please see the counselling page for information about our registered counseller, Salihan Laugesen.

At times, our clinic hosts placements for Masters of Counselling students from the University of Canberra. These students are in our clinic as part of their final placement and are supervised and supported by our Doctors to care for patients in our clinic. Appointments with our students on placement do not have associated fees. Please contact reception regarding our current availability.

Psychology Services

Lara Fridgant is currently on leave until July 2026and not accepting new patients.

Report for legal proceedings

Our doctors have a special interest in General Adult Psychiatry. They do not specialise in assessments and reports for legal matters and court proceedings.

Gun Licence Review

We are unable to provide Gun licence assessments for new patients.

Booking an initial consultation

Before we can make an appointment, we require a GP referral to be sent to our clinic. We then need you to contact our reception team to discuss your referral and the next steps. Our Doctors will triage your referral. They may request extra paperwork or patient history to also be sent prior to booking (Previous medical reports for example).

Fees and billing

Please contact our reception team for billing information. As a private specialist clinic, we are unable to provide bulk-billed appointments.

Medicares changes to the initial consultations rebate:

Medicare has changed the rebate for initial appointments with consultant psychiatrists. Patients can only access one Medicare rebatable initial appointment with a consultant psychiatrist in a two year period. If you have seen another consultant psychiatrist for an initial appointment in the past 2 years (either as an inpatient or outpatient) you cannot access the Medicare rebate for an initial appointment. Please inform our staff if you have seen another psychiatrist and they can inform you of the changes to the fee.

Additionally, if it has been more than 2 years since your last appointment at our clinic, please note that the process and billing will be the same as a new patient. Your GP referral will be triaged and we will advise if our Doctors have capacity to take you on as a new patient.

Rescheduling your first appointment

Please understand there is a high volume of patients waiting for an appointment. Therefore, please let us as soon as possible that you need changes to be made to your initial appointment. There may be cancellation fees for non-attendance on the day or insufficient notice of a cancellation. Please be advised that if you require your initial consultation to be rescheduled that there may be an extended waiting time for rebooking. Our Doctors 'New Patient' time slots are booked outmany months in advance.

Patient Age Requirement

Our Psychiatrists area of specialty is in Adult Mental Health conditions. Our Doctors do not see children or young adolescents. Please speak to our reception team for more information.

Our practice has an obligation to provide our staff with a safe work environment. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of aggression or abuse, including verbal abuse and aggression that can occur over the phone or written by email.
We are a small privately owned family practice - our obligations to see patients are not the same as the public health system. Persons and their family members who show behaviour that is abusive, aggressive or threatening, will not be accepted by our practice as a patient.

Emergency contact numbers - If you're in crisis and do need immediate support please see contact numbers below:

LIFELINE: 13 11 14

ACT CRISIS TEAM: 1 800 629 354

NSW MENTAL HEALTH: 1 800 011 511

In an emergency please call 000

reception@murrumbatemanspecialist.com.au