How Leongatha’s Urgent Care Centre is fully supported

THE ‘My Emergency Doctor’ virtual doctor service, supporting afterhours Urgent Care at the Leongatha Hospital, is up and running.

Several patients, presenting with a range of issues, were supported at the hospital by the service the over the weekend.

Acting CEO at Gippsland Southern Health Service (GSHS) Chris Trotman was pleased to see a smooth transition to a new era in health care at Leongatha’s Urgent Care Centre.

“My Emergency Doctor is a well-established service, operating here and overseas, linking patients with Australian-qualified emergency physicians, one-on-one,” said Ms Trotman.

“A senior nurse will also be with them at all times,” said GSHS Director of Nursing Vivienne Low.

My Emergency Doctor was founded in 2016 by Sydney-based emergency physician, Dr Justin Bowra (MBBS FACEM CCPU) and as of January 2022, has taken more than 100,000 calls, treating 80 per cent of patients in situ.

All the consulting doctors within My Emergency Doctor are Fellows of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (FACEMs). They are Australian-qualified emergency doctors and are all registered with Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

Some of them, however, may be based overseas, signing on to support the service from remote locations.

Leongatha Healthcare doctors, although pressed for numbers, will continue to support ‘Category One’ presentations afterhours at Leongatha, that is, from 9pm to 8am weekdays and some weekends.

The local doctors will continue to support all other services at the Leongatha Hospital as usual.

And nothing will change for the Urgent Care service at the Korumburra Hospital which will continue to be supported by the Korumburra Medical Centre.

With one bed and as few as 1-2 patients daily, Korumburra is fortunate to be able to retain the service.

These assurances follow an announcement last week that local doctors would not be supporting afterhours presentations at Leongatha’s Urgent Care Centre.

“Unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult for local GPs to cover all hours at the Leongatha hospital and to preserve our excellent maternity and surgical services,” said Ms Low last week.

“Therefore, in collaboration with Leongatha Healthcare we will be moving to a telehealth model of care for GSHS’s Urgent Care Centre from 9pm to 8am and some weekends.”

Upon presentation at the Urgent Care Centre, patients will be assessed as usual and if the injury or illness requires ongoing care in hospital, they may be admitted to Leongatha Hospital or arrangements will be made for transfer to the appropriate metropolitan or regional health service.

Ms Low said this model has been tested throughout Victoria with excellent results and ensures that patients receive access to emergency physicians when required.

But Acting CEO Chris Trotman was keen to stress all other services at the hospital would continue to be supported by local doctors and visiting specialists.

Ms Trotman made particular mention of the maternity service at Leongatha.

“We have a very good relationship with our obstetricians and work closely with our local GPs. We have upwards of 200 births-a-year and I can assure you, there are no plans to change the service we presently provide in our maternity unit.”

Ms Trotman did acknowledge, however, that the availability and recruitment of GPs in rural areas was an issue right across Australia, not just in Leongatha.

A recent article in the Herald-Sun spoke about a crisis in rural health, resulting in a blowout in appointment times, a reduction in hospital services due to low and falling GP numbers.

The problem, they said quoting the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, is that doctors increasingly don’t want to work in rural areas, preferring better paid specialist roles in the city. Also, of recent graduates, only 13 per cent are signing on to be GPs.

Medical authorities have called for higher Medicare payments for GPs working in rural areas.