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| After-hours clinic saves the day |
9-Feb-2005 |
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by Cathy Saunders
FEDERALLY funded after-hours GP clinics do make a difference — at least on Australia Day, the bloodiest night of the year, according to a Perth emergency physician.
The celebrations in WA involved thousands of mainly good-humoured revellers, but many still ended up at emergency departments with lacerations and fractures, often drug- or alcohol-related.
With high-level pressure on services, Dr Steve Dunjey, an emergency physician at Royal Perth Hospital, said being able to redirect patients to the after-hours clinic run by Perth and Hills Division of General Practice proved a success.
The clinic was one of four in WA set up last June to reduce access block and waiting times, amid claims by the AMA they were a waste of money.
Dr Dunjey said: “The hospital has been ramping up its response each year as it gets busier. We’ve had more staff on, more security staff, more police present and, on this particular occasion, actually having the after-hours clinic open was another thing that made a big difference.”
His emergency department saw 200 patients on the night, with 29 treated by the on-duty GP based in a clinic across the road from the hospital. The usual workload for the clinic is an average of 300 patients a month.
Dr Dunjey stressed that Australia Day — described by one local newspaper as a “bloodbath”— was atypical and the after-hours clinic had yet to demonstrate it could reduce emergency department demand. “In normal day-to-day running we don’t feel the presence of the clinic has made a huge difference in terms of decongestion of the department, reducing the incidence of ambulance bypass and that kind of thing.”
The number of general practice-type patients attending the emergency department was less than 10%, Dr Dunjey said.
His claims were echoed in a report in the latest issue of Emergency Medicine Australasia, which found GP clinics attached to emergency departments had had a minimal impact on emergency department attendances and had not helped with access block and overcrowding.
POLITICKING GPS PUT UP A FIGHT FOR PATIENTS
WITH the WA state election just two weeks away, two GPs have hit the campaign trail. It should be a tightly fought contest with the ALP at risk of being forced out of office if it loses just four seats. CATHY SAUNDERS from Australian Doctor spoke to both Liberal candidates — Dr Graham Jacobs and Dr Kim Hames — about why they are standing and what they will be fighting for.
Constant comments about the ‘relaxing lifestyle’ of country GPs annoyed WA rural GP Dr Graham Jacobs so much that he is fighting for a seat in the upcoming WA state election to correct the misconception.
Currently on the wrong end of a safe seat — the National Party holds a 21% majority — he said: “I could see that everywhere I went in the smaller rural towns there were moves afoot to downsize services, not only hospitals, but the services in and around those hospitals.
“People living in these areas pay taxes, produce for the state of WA and contribute to the gross state product, in primary industry particularly, and I think they deserve better.”
Dr Jacobs said he would lobby for an upgrade of the 30-year-old Esperance Hospital, and the attraction and retention of GPs, nurses and visiting specialists.
Dr Kim Hames, who was Minister for Housing, Aboriginal Affairs and Water Resources in the former coalition government, is attempting to win the seat of Dawesville, having lost his last seat in 2001. Working part time in a skin cancer clinic, he said he would push for a reduction in waiting lists for elective surgery.
“On top of that, there are extremely long waiting lists of people waiting to be seen to see if they should go on the waiting list,” he said.
Another issue Dr Hames would tackle was the lack of country health services.
He decided to re-enter the fray this year because he was not happy with the way health was managed by the Labor Government.
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