WYNDHAM residents have made the second-highest number of contacts in the western suburbs to the Nurse-On-Call service in a year.
Local people made 9458 calls to the service, seeking medical advice about symptoms such as vomiting and fever, abdominal pain and discomfort, diarrhoea, nausea and chest pain.
Brimbank residents topped the list with 15,838 calls.
State-wide, there were 380,000 calls.
Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said Nurse-On-Call is a trusted service for many Victorian families and gives people access to 24-hour advice and information.
“It helps Victorians decide if they need to attend hospital or a doctor straight away, whether their illness or condition could be treated by a GP the next day, or if they can manage it themselves,” she said.
Seventy per cent of the calls made by Victorians resulted in triage – where a nurse discussed a caller’s symptoms and provided recommendations about seeking appropriate health care.
Weekends have proved to be the busiest days, and the most calls were received on Sundays.
Hospitals have diverted more than 45,000 calls to Nurse-On-Call, representing more than 6700 hours of hospital nursing time. The nurses on the line have access to cutting edge clinical decision support software providing them with the latest medical information.
The Nurse-On-Call number is 1300 60 60 24.
