Sign the petition now: CLICK HERE

This is the TV ad about Protecting Home Visits

Medicare Home Visits are under threat from cuts that will devastate Australia’s most vulnerable, if we don’t act now. Single parents, carers, people with disabilities, the elderly and over 2 million Australians all rely on this Medicare service.

Imagine what would happen to your family if you didn’t have access to home visits! Kids fall sick at all hours of the day and night, not just in business hours, and it’s important families can get help when they need it most. Please let as many people know to sign up to the  campaign to save home visits. http://protecthomevisits.com.au

Home visits are for when there is an urgent need for medical care and your regular GP is unavailable in the after-hours period. This includes evenings, night time, weekends and public holidays. Home visits are not for medical care provision that can wait for you to see your GP at their clinic. Today, more than one million families benefit from this great Medicare initiative every year. Without home visits, many families would have to go to emergency departments for health problems that are not emergencies but cannot wait until business hours to be treated.

Doctor home visits are under threat and your support is needed to ensure the voice of the patient is heard. If home visits are removed then there will be increased pressure on hospital emergency departments. A recent report by Deloittes Access Economics found after-hours home visits save taxpayers $724 million dollars over the four years of the budget forward estimates by reducing pressure on hospital emergency departments. A visit to an emergency department for GP type care costs $368, it costs $256 when a patient phones the Healthdirect phone service and $1351 when an ambulance is called, a visit to an after hours clinic costs on average $93, Deloitte Access Economics says. While the cost of a home visit costs between $75 – $153 dependent on presentation and time of day.

Imagine what would happen to your family if you didn’t have access to home visits! Kids fall sick at all hours of the day and night, not just in business hours, and it’s important families can get help when they need it most. Please let as many people know to sign up to the  campaign to save home visits. http://protecthomevisits.com.au

Home visits are for when there is an urgent need for medical care and your regular GP is unavailable in the after-hours period. This includes evenings, night time, weekends and public holidays. Home visits are not for medical care provision that can wait for you to see your GP at their clinic. Today, more than one million families benefit from this great Medicare initiative every year. Without home visits, many families would have to go to emergency departments for health problems that are not emergencies but cannot wait until business hours to be treated.

Call The Doctor is working hard behind the scenes to secure some funding, please get behind this service and phone on 1800 22 55 84 if you need a doctor in the after hours period when your regular GP is closed.

Please see our most recent news article https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1240883379278666&id=243316189035395&viewer=307445672743725&ref=bookmarks

Current access to after hours care is poor and the demand is particularly high in Tasmania and South Australia because many GPs are unable to see their patient the day they ring up, being booked for up to a week in advance.  There are no other after hours services after 10 pm that are as well staffed as Call The Doctor to tackle the demand. This leaves patients who are acutely ill unable to see a doctor when they need it. Call The Doctor see patients who otherwise wouldn’t get to be seen until days later, therefore we can  prevent the progression of illness.

Call The Doctor is your local after hours medical service providing home visits for patients. We are a locally owned and operated service focusing on primary patient care through the ethos “prevention is better than cure”. We are helping reduce the burden on hospitals, paramedics other service providers in the local community.

The Call The Doctor team has experienced the need for increased after hours service provision first hand.  In the last 12 months we have attended several community events. We take these opportunities to speak directly with local people and hear their personal  health care stories which only serves to highlight the after hours health inadequacies of our region. Feedback from families informs the Call the Doctor team that they are making a difference.

We attend everyone including;

• people that would have either gone without care or attended hospital emergency departments
• the house bound elderly
• agoraphobic, palliative, mentally ill and otherwise incapacitated patients
• the socially disadvantaged who are unable to afford transport to points of care

Please support your locally owned and operated Doctor service. If you would like us to service your area please let us know via this link http://118.127.41.118/~callthed/contact/

Call The Doctor’s Manager Jesse Hardy is raising money to save our rainforests by crusading across India from Shillong to Kochi. That is a short 3500km across India in two weeks (depending on how lost they get!). This Indian crusade will be completed on 7HP rickshaws so it is defiantly dangerous as these vehicles are unreliable. That is an average of 12 hours a day hammering these poor little machines … Call The Doctors advice was to avoid the masked, gun-weilding men. Apparently their directions suck. 

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

You can make a donation straight to our team via the fundraising page below.

Fundraising page: https://www.coolearth.org/campaigns/8731/rickshaw-run-august-2016-2/

*your donation will go straight to the cause, with none going towards ‘admin fees’

They head off tomorrow, Good luck team!

A nice article to see this morning in the Mercury, Dr Meg (attending doctor on scene of accident) visited this chap and his wife earlier in the week and their strength and resilience still astounds us. He was lucky to be alive and now very thankful.

Thank you Dr Meg

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/broden-wakefield-seriously-injured-after-facade-and-awning-collapse-on-top-of-him/news-story/5e6bb29b21ee89037496cf7d3433d795

Our thoughts are with a young man from Hobart who was crushed by the bad weather yesterday. Dr Meg McKeown and her husband Graeme from Call The Doctor were driving past and provided first aid before the ambulance came and described the experience as very upsetting.

“Please everyone look out for each other, this wild weather across the whole of South East Australia is causing dangerous situations” Dr Meg.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-14/man-trapped-under-wall-collapse-undergoes-surgery/7627694

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1226495810717423&id=243316189035395

Jen, one of our amazing staff members has unfortunately been diagnosed with breast cancer. Being sick when you are a parent is hard enough but being sick and looking after a special needs child adds to the stress. Please help this amazing  mother and community member by donating here. Your support is greatly appreciated.

https://www.gofundme.com/byebyejensboobies?viewupdates=1&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cta_button&utm_campaign=upd_n

Please donate if you can, the karma will return to you.

Call The Doctor

We are looking to expand our coverage area in the future – Have a look at the article on Call The Doctor in the Kingsborough

http://www.kingboroughchronicle.com.au/index.php/component/k2/item/420-service-hailed-a-success

Call The Doctor has been swamped by parents of sick children in its first year of operation.

The service has seen 12,000 people at home in the past 12 months, about 50 per cent of whom were children and babies.

The service says it is receiving on average 40 to 50 calls a day, with more than 100 calls on the busiest days.

If you ever need us and your GP is closed please call us on 1800 CALL THE DR (1800 22 55 84)

Check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/calldoctor/

Check out WIN News Tasmania report on Call The Doctor

https://www.facebook.com/WINNewsTasmania/videos/1115587785141560/?fref=nf

Those behind Hobart’s first bulk-billed home doctor service say it’s had a promising first twelve months.

With thousands of Tasmanians accessing the affordable after-hours care, Call The Doctor says it’s helped more than 40% of its patients avoid emergency hospital visits.

If you ever need us and your GP is closed please call us on 1800 CALL THE DR (1800 22 55 84)

Looking for a good read? have a look at the report on Call The Doctor in the Mercury

http://www.themercury.com.au/lifestyle/call-the-doctor-service-big-hit-with-concerned-parents/news-story/5d76427160e46630c8fca6d11521c637

Call The Doctor has been swamped by parents of sick children in its first year of operation.

The service has seen 12,000 people at home in the past 12 months, about 50 per cent of whom were children and babies.

The service says it is receiving on average 40 to 50 calls a day, with more than 100 calls on the busiest days.

If you ever need us and your GP is closed please call us on 1800 CALL THE DR (1800 22 55 84)