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Care Opinion

Kalbarri Health Centre

Posted By Kalbarri resident

"Kalbarri Health Centre"

About: Kalbarri Health Centre

(as the patient),

Recently I awoke to my child with croupe, having difficulty breathing and talking. I immediately gave my child some ventolin ( not asthmatic, otherwise) and took my child to my local health centre. I knew from previous overnight emergencies that they were no longer open 24hrs, but had forgotten in my moment of panic. I then came home and phoned the health centre knowing that I would be redirected to rural health (who did the best they could do from afar).

With a stable population of 2500 to 3000 people, I think that it's a real shame and quite disappointing that we are not provided with 24 hour emergency facilities. Do we have to lose a young life before the government realises the importance of such a facility? ? We are 160kms away from our next emergency department, I believe it's totally justified 😊

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Responses

Response from WA Country Health Service Midwest 7 years ago
WA Country Health Service Midwest

Submitted on 1/03/2017 at 12:31 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:17 PM

Dear Kalbarri resident

I am sorry to hear of your experience at Kalbarri Health Centre and the difficulties you faced when accessing emergency medical care for your daughter out of business hours. WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Midwest does aim to provide safe and accessible services to our communities and understand your disappointment in not being able to easily do this.

I have discussed your story with Andrew Klein, Operations Manager Midwest Murchison and he would like the opportunity to discuss the concerns you have raised and would appreciate if you could contact him on 9956 2268. Alternatively you can contact me on 9956 8695 or michele.young@health.wa.gov.au. Your call would be very welcome and can still be addressed anonymously if you wish.

WACHS Midwest are having difficulties recruiting staff to vacant nursing positions at Kalbarri Health Centre. As a result we are unfortunately unable to staff the Centre 24 hours per day with a nurse, however a nurse is always on-call to provide services in an emergency. The call button at the front door at Kalbarri Health Centre connects to Health Direct and they assess the patient over the phone and contact the nurse on-call as needed. The Centre is staffed 24 hours per day with an all-purpose orderly to assist the nurse on call and is also able to connect to the Emergency Telehealth Service enabling staff to contact emergency specialist doctors via videoconferencing as needed for expert guidance and support.

We are continuing our efforts to recruit staff and I would like to reassure you there are no plans to close this services. Your feedback is taken seriously and being discussed with staff to see if there are any changes that we can make to better inform the community how to access services after hours.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us on Patient Opinion and I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind Regards

Michele

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