Maitland · Telehealth
Telehealth Dietitian for Maitland
Video appointments with Accredited Practising Dietitians for Maitland and the surrounding Hunter towns. Same Medicare rebates, no drive into Newcastle.
How we see Maitland clients: by telehealth only. Ausclin’s rooms are in Mount Hutton and we do not run a clinic in Maitland, so every Maitland appointment is a video consultation. Medicare and private health rebates apply on the same basis as an in-person visit.
Close enough to drive, far enough that you would rather not
Maitland is only about half an hour from our rooms, which is precisely why people assume they should come in. In practice the drive is rarely the hard part — it is the parking, the school pick-up window, and taking a longer block out of a working day than the appointment itself needs.
For a standard dietitian appointment, none of that buys you anything clinically. So we see Maitland clients by video, and keep the time for the actual conversation.
Where our Maitland clients are
Maitland, East Maitland, Rutherford, Thornton, Metford, Lorn, Bolwarra, Largs, Morpeth, Gillieston Heights, Farley, Aberglasslyn and out towards Paterson and Lochinvar.
Maitland is one of the faster-growing parts of the Hunter, and focused dietetic services have not grown with it at the same rate — particularly for eating disorders in young people, where families frequently end up travelling to Newcastle anyway.
Families, and the appointments that actually get kept
A meaningful share of our Maitland work is with families: a young person with a developing eating disorder, a parent trying to work out whether what they are seeing is fussy eating or something else, or a household where one person’s medical nutrition needs have to fit around everyone else’s dinner.
Telehealth helps here in a way it does not always elsewhere. Parents can join from work, both parents can be on the same call from different places, and the young person does not have to sit in a waiting room. Appointments that would otherwise be rescheduled get kept.
How telehealth works, and what it costs
Do you see Maitland clients in person?
No. Our rooms are in Mount Hutton and we do not run a Maitland clinic, so Maitland appointments are by video. You are of course welcome to travel to Mount Hutton if you would rather be seen in person — it is roughly a 30 minute drive.
Is a telehealth dietitian covered by Medicare?
Yes, on the same basis as an in-person appointment. If your GP prepares a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan, Medicare item 10954 currently rebates $63.40 per session for up to five allied health sessions per calendar year, and the session must run at least 20 minutes. Eating disorder arrangements allow considerably more. You can check the pathways with our Medicare Eligibility Checker.
Does telehealth actually work for dietetics?
It suits dietetics better than most clinical work. There is no physical examination in a standard dietitian appointment — it is conversation, history, food patterns, planning and review. A video call loses very little of that, and it gains something: we can see your kitchen, your pantry, the labels on the products you actually buy, which is often more useful than anything that happens in a consulting room.
Can both parents join a session for our child?
Yes, and it often works better. Each person can join from wherever they are, which usually means both parents actually attend rather than one relaying it to the other afterwards. For eating disorder work in particular, having everyone hearing the same thing at the same time matters.