Opinion - Partnerships improve access to urgent and emergency care

Dr Belinda Hibble, Emergency Department director

Emergency departments across our region are a critical resource for our community and, over the summer, for the many visitors to our region. At University Hospital Geelong, we usually see approximately 200 people present each day over a 24-hour period for care, but of course, this varies with up to 240 people attending on some days. People present for a wide range of reasons, including injuries, acute illnesses, mental health concerns, exacerbations of chronic illnesses and impacts from drug and alcohol consumption and approximately a quarter of the presentations are children.

We are committed to providing the very best care to each person who comes to the emergency department, and we work hard to ensure we prioritise and treat the most urgent needs and sickest patients first. We know this means sometimes people need to wait longer for their care, and we appreciate the community's understanding when this occurs.

Over the last few years, we have been developing new service options and connecting our services to better respond to the community's needs. Our GPs are working harder than ever but are often unable to support urgent or unplanned care after hours. The emergency departments are also under pressure with the increasing complexity of health care needs.

At Barwon Health, we have continued to expand our Emergency Department (ED) with more treatment areas, and soon we will open the new dedicated children's ED. We have also been working hard to grow alternative options to the ED for people who may not need an emergency department, but rather have urgent care needs.

Barwon Health North's Urgent Care Centre, which is open 11 hours per day, seven days a week, now cares for more than 40 patients each day and is a high-quality and efficient service for the northern suburbs community provided by expert multidisciplinary nursing and allied health staff, with specialist support from the University Hospital Geelong ED doctors available by telehealth. We have also built a strong partnership with Geelong's Priority Primary Care Centre, a GP-led service offering appointments for urgent care on a walk-in basis.

Our Emergency Department clinicians have built close relationships with our neighbouring health services across the Barwon South West region, further supporting the sharing of expertise between the services and providing access to specialist support via telehealth, meaning people can receive comprehensive healthcare closer to home. For example, some patients attending the Colac Urgent Care Centre may access specialist care at University Hospital Geelong via telehealth, so they do not have to travel to Geelong.

We look forward to the Children's Emergency Department's opening this year. We are also committed to evolving and strengthening our new alternative services to improve access to emergency care for our growing community over the coming years.