THE District Nursing Service is making the most of their new location at 28 High Street with a walk-in clinic open for an hour each weekday for non-critical patients.
Nurse unit manager Maria Fox said it was a culmination of opportunity and inspiration to open the clinic for walk-ins, a move which has already welcomed about 20 people through the doors in two weeks.
“We hope we’re helping the primary medical clinic and the emergency department by easing some of the pressure from patients where a doctor doesn’t need to be involved,” Ms Fox said.
“Our new location used to be the specialist clinic, so we were able to repurpose the equipment and treatment rooms we needed to make this possible which made the transition so much easier.
“With support from the executive team especially Bina Rai and Chloe Keogh, encouragement and inspiration from our peers nationwide, and the circumstances aligning we are now able to offer $8 walk-in treatment without an appointment.”
The clinic offers wound dressing, health monitoring and advanced care planning, and can be a first point of call for people who are unsure whether they need to seek further medical advice.
“We had a young person come in who didn’t know if they needed to see a GP and we were able to validate them and refer them on, and another person who had a cardiologist appointment in a month but wanted to monitor their blood pressure in the meantime,” Ms Fox said.
“Our community is very considerate about the wait times at the emergency department and are hesitant to take up space there, so coming to us can either remove the need to go there or validate that they do need to be seen by doctors.
“People leave here feeling more satisfied with what is going on with their health if they have concerns and can have some ease of mind or initiate contact with a GP or other practitioner.”
As nurses, the team does have a scope of practice they are limited to and cannot dispense medication for more serious presentations.
“If you are unwell, have a question, don’t want to wait or can’t get an appointment, the community now has access to the walk-in clinic,” Ms Fox said.
“Our purview is category five of the triage scale, so that is non-urgent easy-fix issues, providing advice and putting you in contact with other healthcare providers if we need to.
“If you have a chest pain, the flu or COVID, there is no point coming to us, as we can’t prescribe medication and you will have to go to a GP.
“However, if you bring your own medication with a drug chart and a written order, which you perhaps haven’t injected before or are unsure of, we can provide education on that medication on a case-by-case basis.”
The walk-in clinic comes after data showed a 72.7 per cent increase in category five patients presenting to the emergency department, which increased the average wait time across all triage categories.
The District Nursing Service is continuing their regular work throughout the community, including visiting patients in the hospital in the home, Commonwealth Home Support Program, and The Home and Community Care Program for Younger People programs.
The service will trial the clinic for three months to gauge the demand from the community and increase or maintain the capacity as needed.
The community can utilise the walk-in clinic between 1pm and 2pm on weekdays, except public holidays, at 28 High Street, Swan Hill.
