{"id":64683,"date":"2014-04-23T19:38:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T09:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=64683"},"modified":"2020-12-04T11:58:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T01:58:54","slug":"doctors-mingle-at-meetngreet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/23\/doctors-mingle-at-meetngreet\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors Mingle At Meet’n’Greet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Margie Hams (Medicare Local Kingaroy) with Kingaroy Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr RT Lewandowski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 23, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It has seven offices: two in Toowoomba and centres in Kingaroy, Charleville, Roma, St George and Goondiwindi.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“We are the glue in the system that links up a lot of activities, making sure that patients get the right care,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Harvey said working in with GPs was vital, which was why activities like the meet’n’greet were important.<\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n