5 April 2011

Woden Walk-In Centre - good experience

| stingy1
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Last Sunday my son cut his leg kicking a ball around in the front yard when his dad didn’t put the garden shears away safely (*woops*).

Bit of a panic ensued until we got the ‘butterfly clip’ on, and a visiting friend recommended we try out the walk-in centre at the Canberra Hospital.

With only a 3-5 hour wait at Emergency to lose, we gave it a go. It was an extremely friendly, efficient and effective service. We arrived at 5pm Saturday, with one family ahead of us, in a comfortable waiting room. At 6pm we saw an extremely friendly nurse who stitched up the boys leg (2 stitches), while the boy and his younger brother watched ‘finding Nemo’ on the nurse’s I-phone.

Thank you ACT Health! This is one health initiative that seems to work (until everyone finds out about it?).

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Overheard said :

I just don’t understand these claims that the walk-in centre exacerbates A&E admissions.

If by exacerabates you mean increases, it certainly does seem dubious.

Doctors are engaged in a turf war as they see their territory being encroached-upon. Nurse Practitioners, Practice Nurses, Psych Nurses et al… nurses with extra qualifications and credentials with more powers and more abilities to do things doctors only used to do.

Now there’s talk of allowing some pharmacists to prescribe (not pharmacy owners though), as is happening in NZ. Certainly if you tested a pharmacist and a doctor on their knowledge of pharmaceuticals and their effects, a pharmacist would knock the doctor into the weeds.

All of this benefits the consumer, most would agree the current situation is not working, and can anyone really see a nurse killing someone by negligence? I can’t.

DarkLadyWolfMother8:07 am 06 Apr 11

INFP said :

How often do you need to go to the emergency room??

For a time there, too often. Though once is too often, I guess.

I’ve used it a couple of times. It’s brilliant. The nurses are friendly, caring and very thorough. There’s no sense that they’re hurrying to get you out of the way to see the next patient.

+1 ACT Government.

How about one on the north side?

Been there twice (well, twice as a patient), and both times was sorted out with blistering speed (relative to the A&E up the hill) and success.

I just don’t understand these claims that the walk-in centre exacerbates A&E admissions.

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

Gantz said :

Not 3 and half hours, 3 to 5 hours.

Ooops. Though I would still suggest 5 hours is a decent time to get in. At least, for me it is.

How often do you need to go to the emergency room??

DarkLadyWolfMother12:58 pm 05 Apr 11

Moose said :

I’ve been wishing everyone a “Good Afternoon” in the mornings and visa versa. It’s an epidemic I tells ya!!

I keep insisting to myself that it’s Friday. I’m constantly disappointed in myself today.

DarkLadyWolfMother12:57 pm 05 Apr 11

Gantz said :

Not 3 and half hours, 3 to 5 hours.

Ooops. Though I would still suggest 5 hours is a decent time to get in. At least, for me it is.

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

Three and a half hours? We used to dream of waiting three and a half hours!

I wish I’d remembered the Walk-in centre a couple of weeks back. Thanks for the reminder!

Oh DarkLadyWolfMother, it’s another one of those weeks 😛

I’ve been wishing everyone a “Good Afternoon” in the mornings and visa versa. It’s an epidemic I tells ya!!

Not 3 and half hours, 3 to 5 hours.

DarkLadyWolfMother11:04 am 05 Apr 11

Three and a half hours? We used to dream of waiting three and a half hours!

I wish I’d remembered the Walk-in centre a couple of weeks back. Thanks for the reminder!

Here! Here!

Recently Mummy Dearest came off her bike at the back of the Cop Shop in Woden. Pretty nasty fall with a bit of bark coming off. Instead of heading to Emergency for the 3-5 hour wait just to have a bit of bark looked at, we went into the Walk-In-Centre.

Absolutely lovely set of nurses that helped Mum with her cuts and bruises, gave her tips on how to dress them throughout the week, and gave her some supplies for the road.

Definatly worth the visit. Well done Walk-In-Centre. Definitely a winner in our books.

Good to hear, and isn’t it nice to be in a comfy, relaxed environment rather than the rather fraught atmosphere of Casualty? Fact is, most accident cases can be very well dealt-with by nurses, and there’s a lot more nurses around.

We’ll see more of this load-sharing in future, nurses are moving into many areas that used to be the domain of doctors, and the winners are the health consumers.

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