Monday, 18 January 2021, 11:40 am
The Thames Hospital summer
clinic has proven to be a success, halving the number of
patients needing to be treated within the Emergency
Department during the holiday period.
The
collaboration with local health provider Te Korowai Hauora o
Hauraki to create a temporary GP clinic at the hospital site
began on December 14, 2020, to cater for the influx of
visitors to the Coromandel.
By January 8 the clinic
had treated 296 of the 577 patients (51.2%) who had turned
up at the ED, following triage which identified them as
non-urgent. On one day, 80% of patients were able to be seen
by the GPs and nurse practitioners at the clinic.