AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR VALUED PATIENTS

Dear Patients,

Thank you for your ongoing support of Paul Hopkins Medical Complex. We pride ourselves on providing high-quality care, welcoming service, and a respectful, inclusive environment for every person who walks through our doors.

Recently, we have received some questions and concerns about our use of overseas team members to help manage incoming calls. We would like to reassure you of the following:

• We continue to hire locally wherever possible. Our onsite reception team is made up of wonderful local staff from our Mackay community, and this will always remain our priority. 

• The volume of phone calls we receive means we require additional support. Just in one day this week, our practice received 434 incoming calls. Each of our clinics only have space for three onsite receptionists, meaning we physically cannot add more onsite staff without impacting patient flow, privacy, and your experience when visiting the clinic.

• By using Australian trained off-site support staff, we ensure your calls are answered more quickly while onsite staff remain focused on supporting you face-to-face.

• We understand how frustrating it can be when it takes longer than expected to get the help you need over the phone and we want you to know we are listening. This new call-support set up is still new, and we are actively training and guiding our off-site team to ensure smoother, faster service.Your patience and understanding as we fine-tune this process is genuinely appreciated.

The Impact of Additional Call Support — Real Numbers

On Monday this week:

• 434 total incoming calls (this does not include outgoing calls)
• 193 of these calls answered by our call-centre support team
• Total time spent on incoming calls alone: 14 hours 13 minutes
• Patients waited a total of 44 minutes on hold. On a Monday before we engaged our call-centre support team our records show patients waited a total of 3 hours 44 minutes on hold!
• We also had 398 in-clinic face-to-face appointments across our clinics requiring direct reception support.

Without our call-centre team, our onsite staff could not manage both the volume of calls and the in-person care our patients deserve.

Our call centre team is made up of three lovely people, one of whom is based locally here in Mackay. We carefully considered many options before engaging our additional call centre support and ultimately chose an Australian-owned and trained company for two of the three team members. This ensures alignment with Australian healthcare standards, communication expectations, and patient privacy requirements.

We have proudly employed Mackay locals for almost 100 years, and that will not change anytime soon. We simply need a little extra help to continue supporting our thousands of valued patients both on the phone and in person.

At PHMC, we are proud to be a multicultural, inclusive organisation. We believe in treating every team member, and every patient, with dignity and respect regardless of background. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. Every person who represents PHMC, whether onsite or remotely, is carefully selected, trained, and committed to supporting your healthcare journey.

We truly appreciate your understanding and ongoing support as we continue to grow, evolve, and find better ways to care for our community.


Warm regards,

PHMC Management Team
28/11/2025