Most private insurance companies and the Accident Compensation Coroporation require patients to be referred from another service provider such as your GP, physiotherapist, hand therapist, chiropractor or osteopath. If you intend to fund your visit and treatment privately, you can contact our rooms directly via phone or email.

Once your referral has been received, we will send you a questionnaire which will help with collecting as much information as possible prior to your appointment. Please add as much detail as possible. Mr Watt will assess it all and see whether any further imaging is required prior to your visit and will also allocate a time frame in which he would like your appointment to be booked in. 

One of the major treatment options to an orthopaedic surgeon’s disposal is surgery. Fortunately many orthopaedic conditions can be treated non-surgically and these options will be discussed during your consultation. However, occasionally Mr Watt may advise that you may want to see one of his sports-, musculoskeletal- or pain physician colleagues instead, especially where the mainstay of treatment is non-surgical.

This can be a very complex discussion to have and in most cases the ACC will do their utmost to assist patients who have sustained injuries and are temporarily or permanently disabled. Mr Watt does not have direct influence with the ACC although he does see many patients funded by the ACC. In some instances, an injury may have made a person symptomatic/caused the onset of pain and dysfunction but a pre-existing condition may be present. Depending on the severity of the pre-existing changes, the ACC may offer some treatment options but this may be limited and not address all of the pathology present. Mr Watt will always advocate for his patients but will also caution when he feels expectations from the ACC are unrealistic or potentially disappointing.

Once you have had time to discuss surgical options with Mr Watt and have decided to proceed to having surgery, his team will send you a surgical estimate if you are planning to fund the surgery privately or have private medical insurance. Please submit this to your insurer for pre-approval or acknowledge that you accept the terms via email. For surgery covered by the ACC, we will submit the request for funding directly to them for approval.

Mr Watt encourages anyone who wants a second or different opinion to make this known and he will accommodate this request as best possible, without taking offence. Similarly, Mr Watt is happy to provide a second opinion where a patient has already been seen by another service provider, provided that a new referral requesting this is arranged. If this is requested by the ACC, a formal request stating the need for a review is needed. 

Fees for initial and follow-up consultations remain the patient’s responsibility, in the unfortunate event that the ACC decline to fund these. We do make sure that a claim is active at the time of booking a consultation but the ACC may withdraw funding at any time without further notice to us. If you have received notice of the ACC withdrawing their funding or cover for your injury, please let us know immediately to avoid being held accountable for these charges. You will still have the option to be seen but may need to then fund the consultation yourself.

Mr Watt may only extend your ACC medical certificate when you are being seen physically for consultation or as part of your post-operative recovery restrictions. For any further extension please contact your general practitioner or your ACC case manager.