A patient seated in a clinic lounge, reading something on her phone

Article

The Care Navigator: finding the right service when you don't know its name

How the Care Navigator helper works — describe your situation in plain words and it points to the relevant Health MediCo service and booking option. Wayfinding, not medical advice.

You should not need to know what a service is called in order to use it. The Care Navigator is the part of this site built for the person who knows what is happening, but not which door it belongs behind.

The gap it closes

Most people arrive with a situation, not a service name. "I've been exhausted for months and I can't switch off at night" is not a request for mental health and wellbeing; "my son's preventer runs out every six weeks and I keep re-explaining his asthma to a new receptionist" is not a request for ongoing condition care. A clinic's services list is written in the clinic's language, and the person reading it is usually not fluent in it.

The Care Navigator exists to close that gap. You write what is happening in your own words — one or two sentences is enough — and it returns the services on this site that fit, each with a short reason and a link to that service's page or booking journey.

How it works

Type your situation into the box the way you would say it to a friend. The helper reads it against this site's own list of services and picks one to three that genuinely fit, then says in plain words why each one is relevant. From there you can read the service page or send an appointment request. Nothing is booked, no account is needed, and nothing is required to try it.

It also recognises when something should not wait. If what you describe sounds like an emergency, it says so straight away and points you to 000, or Lifeline on 13 11 14 for crisis support, instead of suggesting an appointment.

What it will not do

It will not tell you what is wrong. It does not diagnose, interpret a symptom, comment on a medication, or decide whether you need to be seen today. It has no view on the meaning of what you are feeling.

It is a directory with a good memory for what this site offers. The judgement about what you actually need — the appointment type, the tests, the treatment — belongs to a clinician who has examined you, and the Care Navigator is not a stand-in for one.

If it is urgent

Do not describe an emergency to a website and wait for an answer. Call 000 if anyone is in danger, and call Lifeline on 13 11 14 if you or someone you know is in crisis. If you are unsure how urgent something is, treat it as urgent and ask.

What happens to what you type

Your description is used to produce the suggestions and nothing more. It is not saved to a medical record, not attached to an appointment, and not shown to a clinic. If you go on to send an appointment request, that form is a separate thing: it is held privately and passed to the clinic you choose.

If you would rather not describe anything at all, the services list and the clinic pages say the same thing in a different order. The helper is a shortcut, not a gate.

A service list answers the question “what do we offer?”. A person arriving at midnight needs the other question answered: “which of those is mine?”

Where to begin

Use the helper above, or skip it and open the service that looks closest. Either way the next step is the same: one appointment at one clinic, with the clinic confirming the time, appointment length and fees with you.