Urgent Care

When you present to the Emergency Department you will be seen by a triage nurse. Triage nurses are specially trained and highly-skilled to make the first assessment of patients arriving to emergency. The triage nurse will perform your initial consultation, ask for your symptoms and perform routine checks to determine your triage category. Triage categories are used by staff to identify the sickest and most urgent patients.

Triage categories

• Category 1 – Resuscitation
• Category 2 – Emergency
• Category 3 – Urgent
• Category 4 – Semi-urgent
• Category 5 – Non-urgent

Great Ocean Road Health has pioneered many significant advances in rural and remote urgent care including;

• Onsite X-ray service which relays directly to relevant senior consultants in Geelong.
• Telehealth facilities which provide a direct link to specialist doctors, particularly in an emergency.

Rural and Isolated Practice Endorsed Registered Nurses (RIPERNS) with advanced clinical skills able to initiate clinical management when a doctor is unavailable on-site.

Transfers are arranged if specialised medical or surgical management is required. Fees for medical care and ambulance transport may be charged by the provider.

Emergency department factsheets provide condition-specific health and medical information for people attending the emergency department. They are designed to assist communication between emergency department clinicians and patients and/or carers.

Visit: http://www.health.vic.gov.au/edfactsheets for more information.

Tips for Managing your health should an emergency arise.

• Always call triple zero (000) in the event of an emergency
• Keep up-to-date ambulance cover for you and/or your family

Medicare Fees

If you are not a holder of an Australian Medicare Card, a Student Visa, or from a country which has Reciprocal Rights in Australia, the following fees will apply:

• $480.00 for an Urgent Care Presentation
• $1,400.00 for an Acute Admission and Overnight Stay

You will be asked for payment in advance prior to treatment and you will be provided with a receipt and a letter for your insurance company with details of treatment provided.

Patients transferred by ambulance for further medical treatment are responsible for all ambulance fees.

Urgent Care Fees
Private GP medical care.
Consumers who do need to see a GP whilst in Urgent Care are advised this is not a public medical service and fees will be incurred, which are claimable from Medicare. The fee structure for the On Call Doctors is dependent upon both the time of day and the day of week. Current fees are displayed in the Urgent Care Area, and are collected by Great Ocean Road Health.

X-ray Fees
There is a $30 charge for an X-ray. This fee covers Barwon Health Radiology Department reporting charges. It is not claimable from Medicare and is an additional fee to that charged by the GP.

Medication supplied By RIPRN.
Out of hours a supply of medication can be issued by RIPRNs, this incurs a $10 fee.

Crutches.
Lorne Crutches can be hired from UCS. The cost is $20 with a $30 refundable deposit.
Apollo Bay crutches are purchased and cost between $20-$30 dependent on size

Moon boots
Moonboots are purchased at both sites at a cost of $35