For Patients

Making an appointment

Please contact Aileen or Chrissy, on (02) 9519 8525.

When you call, please be prepared for them to ask you some questions regarding the type of problem you are coming for. This allows us to understand how urgent the appointment is, so that we can schedule your appointment accordingly. We may suggest you see Susannah, our other surgeon, or our breast fellow, if it is an urgent appointment. This allows us to speed up your appointment and Cindy will still be able to see you if needed.

We may also ask you to fax or email details regarding your biopsy and imaging results. This will help us make your appointment and allow Cindy to plan ahead.

Please do tell us if you are seeking a second opinion from us or are planning to do so. It is understandable that patients would like to do this, and we will not take offence! This enables us to understand and meet your needs better.

Cindy is committed to training and teaching the next generation of breast surgeons. She occasionally has a breast fellow consulting with her. This person is a fully qualified general surgeon who is sub-specialising in general surgery and is part of a national training program under the auspices of BreastSurgANZ. We ask your understanding if the fellow initially assesses and examines you. Cindy will always see you with the fellow. Often an appointment with the fellow enables us to fit in urgent patients who would otherwise have their appointments delayed.

For details on what you need to bring with you during your appointment, please click here.

Private and Public Patients

What is the difference between ‘private’ and ‘public’ patients?

The simple answer is that a private patient is someone who chooses to fund their treatment themselves, often (but not always) through their private health insurer. A public patient is someone who goes to a public hospital and will rely on Medicare to fund their treatment. However, private patients do not need to have private health insurance to be seen in Cindy’s rooms. You may choose to consult Cindy privately within her rooms, and have your surgery performed as a public patient at no cost to you.

Please note, Cindy does not prioritise patients based on their insurance status. The urgency of your appointment will be based on the type of problem you have.

Private Patients

To see Cindy privately, there is a consulting fee, which is partly rebatable by Medicare. The benefits of choosing private consulting include:

• Longer consultation times

• Shorter waiting times

• More appointment dates and times available

• Seeing Cindy personally for the consultation

Having Surgery As A Private Patient

Cindy operates on private patients at The Mater Hospital and Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.

Cindy does not discriminate between private and public patients in terms of urgency of their condition. However, having private health insurance means that there are additional operating lists available, which can help bring forward your surgery date.

Other benefits of having your surgery done privately are that Cindy will personally perform your procedure and you are more likely to have a single room.

There is often a gap between the cost of the surgery and the rebate from a health fund, and we can give you estimates of this once we know what type of surgery you require.

It is possible to have your surgery done privately without having health insurance. You can discuss this with us at your appointment, if you wish.

Public patients

Cindy helps public patients via The Breast Clinic at Lifehouse. She is one of three surgeons at the Lifehouse breast clinic located at Clinic B, Level 2, and is present on Thursday afternoons. This is a free clinic but you will need a referral from your general practitioner. At this clinic we unfortunately cannot guarantee appointments with Cindy. Appointments are allocated to the next available doctor at the clinic.

We request your patience and understanding if Cindy is unable to personally see you at the clinic (even if your general practitioner has referred you to her directly). This clinic is run by a professional team of breast physicians, surgical fellows, residents and registrars. They are essential for the smooth running of the clinic and we request your understanding if you are allocated to see them instead of Cindy directly.

For new patient appointments at this clinic please ring (02) 8514 0255.