Awareness call over clinic

By Kath Gannaway
BEING under-worked and over-paid is not a complaint you hear too often from doctors, but for Yarra Junction GP, Dr Peter White, seeing four or five patients in a three-hour stint at the Eastern Ranges After Hours Medical Service (ERAHMS) in Healesville, is not keeping up his usual pace.
Dr White who has worked at the service since it opened in February this year says more needs to be done to promote the service which aims to provide an after hours GP service for Yarra Valley communities.
Dr White said it is not unusual to turn away between 15 and 20 patients at his Yarra Junction clinic on a Monday or Tuesday. He was reluctant, however, to draw a link to the possibility those patients might have been better served to attend the after hours clinic in Healesville had they needed attention over the weekend.
“It’s possible they may have been unwell over the weekend but had not been able to get to Healesville, or did not realise the service was available,” Dr White said.
“I believe the main problem, from the response I get when I tell people about it, is that people don’t know the service is operating,” he said.
The access of Upper Yarra residents to the service was one of a number of issues raised by community groups and residents when it was first announced the service would be located in Healesville. Dr White however, said in his experience there is a good mix of Upper Yarra and Healesville residents presenting at the service.
While the Eastern Ranges GP Association which administers the service was able to provide figures of around 150 visits per month, CEO Kirsten Michaels told the Mail they were unable to provide a post-code break-down of visits because of patient confidentiality.
Healesville GP, and chair of the ERAHMS organising committee, Dr John Lockwood said numbers were in fact increasing every week and every month, but said a lack of awareness in the community about the service was something which needed to be addressed.
“There has been a limited publicity campaign and while we do see a number of patients from along the Warburton Highway, we don’t see a lot because of transport issues, particularly at night,” he said.
Dr Lockwood said the ERAHMS currently has a submission before the Department of Health and Ageing to establish an extension of the service, a mobile doctor, in the Upper Yarra area.
Dr White said the service was an excellent service, which offers a trained sister who takes phone calls and sees patients when they arrive.
“They can then usually see a GP within minutes of arriving,” he said.
Dr Lockwood said the service is designed as an after hours clinic for the sort of condition or situation people think needs the attention of a GP.
He emphasised, it is not an emergency service.
The service, located at Healesville Hospital, is open from 5pm to 10pm weeknights and from midday to 10pm on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. Phone 1300 766 858.