Western Sydney Care Collective
Under the Western Sydney Care Collective initative, a partnership between ourselves and the Western Sydney Local Health District, Urgent Care Service (UCS) centres were established to treat non-life-threatening illnesses such as fractures, dislocations, non-venomous bites, wounds, minor burns, and cuts requiring stitches. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners estimates that nearly one-third of emergency department presentations could be managed by well-coordinated general practices, which could save the health system $1.5 billion a year.^
The Urgent Care Line was also established to assess patients’ symptoms and triage them to the right level of care, including an Urgent Care Service if appropriate.
1,190
Calls to UCL^
2,144
patients treated^
4
UCSs opened^
46%
of patients were children^
Top 5 conditions referred to urgent care:
Ankle injury
Wound problems
Hand or fingernail injury
Eye problem
Arm injury
In parallel to the opening of the Urgent Care Service centres, a regional marketing campaign was launched to raise awareness of the initiative and to change mindsets around accessing treatment for non-life-threatening conditions. The campaign included; out-of-home media (bus shelters, digital billboards, shopping centres), social media advertising, search engine optimisation, video adverts in cinemas, community press, CALD and First Nations radio, posters, flyers, magnets, and development of a Western Sydney Care Collective website. The marketing campaign has been a great success and, last year, over 2,000 patients were treated across four Western Sydney UCSs. Urgent Care Services are a Western Sydney Care Collective initiative, a partnership between WSPN and WSLHD.
Reference:
- ^RACGP (2019), Vision for General Practice and a sustainable healthcare system