April 23, 2014
Despite a Federal Budget axe dangling over their heads, employees of the Darling Downs South West Queensland Medicare Local (DDSWQML) are putting on a brave face.
The Kingaroy office hosted a Meet’n’Greet at the Carrollee Hotel on Wednesday evening for local GPs, pharmacists, registrars, medical students and allied health workers.
Regional Program Officer Margie Hams said the idea was to bring the health professionals together in a social setting so they could get to know each other better, building links to potentially improve patient care.
Amongst the guests was DDSWQML CEO Andrew Harvey who explained the organisation covers an area of 405,000sq km, including the Health Service regions of the Darling Downs and South-West Queensland.
It services 61 communities with about 60 staff and up to 100 contractors, co-ordinating a range of health services including physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology.
It has seven offices: two in Toowoomba and centres in Kingaroy, Charleville, Roma, St George and Goondiwindi.
Mr Harvey said the DDSWQML was only a young organisation – it began in April 2012 – but in a short time had achieved “some pretty amazing things”, including supplying a large number of clinical services, Aboriginal services and developing links with hospitals.
“We are the glue in the system that links up a lot of activities, making sure that patients get the right care,” he said.
Mr Harvey said working in with GPs was vital, which was why activities like the meet’n’greet were important.
He said health care was a very dynamic sector which was used to dealing with change. The group had been aware for some time that a review was examining its role, but “in the meantime we have a job to do and patients to help”.
- External link: Medicare Local Cuts Could Also Cut Regional Services (ABC Rural)
