North West Hospital and Health Service’s (North West HHS) Allied Health team have recently extended their hours to provide after hours and on-call services for the following: Physiotherapy and Social Work.

This year the Social Work department has grown to include four social workers consisting of; a senior social worker, senior renal social worker, and two social workers.

With this growth, Social Work will now be available until 1800hrs Mondays and offer on-call service on Saturdays from 0900-1300hrs for high priority referrals.

Physiotherapy will now have a therapist available from 1630-1800 Monday to Friday as well as weekend service Saturday 1000-1400, Sunday 1000-1300 and will also require referral criteria similar to Social Work.

Both services have been extended for the purpose of supporting high priority patients.

Physiotherapy criteria:

• Patient who requires additional Physiotherapy intervention to prevent respiratory deterioration.
• Patient who requires mobility assessment that is preventing discharge.
• Any new referrals from the Emergency Department requiring Physiotherapy Assessment including but not limited to:
  • Mobility Assessment
  • Vestibular Assessment
  • Respiratory Assessment
  • Assessment for consultation regarding acute Musculoskeletal injuries
• Any patients flagged from the Physiotherapy Team who may benefit from an additional review including but not limited to:
  • Rehabilitation Patients
  • Non-deteriorating Respiratory Patients.
  • Any patients that were prioritised as a ‘Low Priority’ during the day shift that was not reviewed and would benefit from a Physiotherapy Review to assist with EDD.

Social Work criteria:

• Life threatening trauma/ unnatural death or life-threatening medical transfers/retrievals.
• Significant injury/death of child or neonatal death.
• Unexpected traumatic medical event resulting in injury or death.
• Situations of high-risk and complex Domestic Family Violence requiring safe discharge planning that meets the following criteria:
  • Significant and life threating injuries e.g., strangulation.
  • Must meet DV Connect Criteria (Ph: 1800 811 811) meaning perpetrator at large with concerns for immediate safety.
  • Concerns for immediate safety of children involved in the DV incident.
• Situations of alleged sexual assault.
• Situations of assault causing serious life-threatening injury.

Acting Executive Director Allied Health Services, Elyse Mugridge, says the team is in full support of the extended hours and expect this to have a significant impact to patient care.

“We’ll be able to support more clients coming through the doors, we’ll be able to provide more comprehensive examinations, and the overall patient experience will benefit,” said Ms Mugridge.

These Allied Health extended hours will be subject to change depending on client feedback and resource management; however North West HHS is committed to continuing the extended service for as long as feasible and will continue to look for opportunities to expand services to the community.