MQ Health has been instrumental in supporting the establishment of a new service to screen and test patients for COVID-19 in Macquarie Park. It follows the recent government announcement calling for private Respiratory Clinics to assist with the outbreak of the virus.

The service is currently operating out of the existing Walk in Specialist Emergency Clinic (WiSE) – an ambulatory urgent-care clinic (ED alternative for less severe cases) run by Emergency Medicine Physicians. MQ Health has been working with WiSE in various capacities since its inception in 2017.

Head of MQ Health General Practice Professor Simon Willcock has provided leadership in the clinical planning for establishment of this clinic, which officially opened on 21 March. The service is GP led and predominantly staffed by nurses. MQ Health is contributing to the workforce for the clinic with participation from our GPs and nursing staff.

Valuable student experience
Fifteen of our Macquarie MD students have also volunteered to work in the clinic in a casual capacity. The students, after receiving appropriate training, are helping with guiding the flow, taking bookings and chasing results.

“We are very proud of our staff and students who have volunteered to be part of this initiative in contributing to the Australian healthcare system’s collective response to the COVID-19 global pandemic,” said Director, Strategy and Planning, MQ Health, Natalie Sequeira.

Refer patients or book in for testing (Strict testing criteria applies as per Federal Government guidelines).

Telehealth introduced
To help support efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, and in line with government recommendations, most MQ Health clinics have adopted telehealth for patients where appropriate.

Still in the early stages, this initiative means that instead of having patients attend a clinic in person, administration staff set up an appointment for the clinician and patient and they connect by video conferencing or phone.

Under the recently announced package by the Federal Government, these services are available to vulnerable people within the community (i.e. aged over 70, pregnant, with a chronic health condition or Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people under 50) or who are in isolation due to COVID-19, and service by providers who are in isolation due to COVID-19. The new items are available to GPs, medical practitioners, nurse practitioners, participating midwives and allied mental health providers. These telehealth services are bulk billed.

MQ Health clinics have been applying telehealth in the past, however these have traditionally been restricted to regional patients under the Medicare rules.