By TANIA PHILLIPS
THE new Tweed Health for Everyone Super Clinic is already making a difference to local health services, according to the doctors involved.
“Since the clinic opened on 31 May, more than 25,000 patients have accessed the range of GP and allied health services offered at the South Tweed Location,” long-time local GP and Super Clinic founder Dr Diane Blankensee said.
She said response to the new $7.75million clinic, officially opened by Federal Minister for Health Tanya Plibersek and Member for Richmond Justine Elliot late last week, had been “overwhelmingly positive.”
“We believe that patients and their care should come first both from an organisational and clinical perspective,” Dr Blankensee said.
“This patient-centred philosophy is evident in every aspect of the service we provide: from our provision of same-day appointments to extended opening hours and from the free WiFi available in the waiting room to the way our doctors work collaboratively with our allied health professionals.”
The facility has seven doctors in place already with another three expected to start soon as well as a number of “allied health professionals”, and would soon have a pharmacy on the premises making it a one-stop health shop.
Health minister Plibersek said the new clinic is providing residents with better access to doctors and other health professionals under one roof.
“The clinic brings together GPs, nurses, visiting medical specialists, allied health professionals and other healthcare services in a single location to work as a team providing patients with the best possible care,” Ms Plibersek said.
“Local patients will have better access to important allied health services including dietetics, exercise physiology, psychology, physiotherapy, speech therapy and dentistry all from one convenient location.”
Banora Point and District Residents Association secretary Pat Tate, who had help lobby for the facility, was full of praise for the new facility.
“It is a fantastic – it’s local and has all the facilities that a patient would require,” she said.
“It is so wonderful to have our three much-loved doctors back in one place. I saw a list of the other applicants (who had put in to run the clinic) and none of them were local people.”
She said she had been very pleased to see the syndicate of Dr Austin Sterne, Dr Blanckensee and Dr Jenni Soden – all much respected and well-known local doctors – given the license for the new centre.
As well as the Doctors patients can also access a range of other services including psychology, physiotherapy, exercise physiology, speech pathology, dietetics, podiatry and diabetes education, with more services to be available soon. The superclinic is also home to Tweed Hollistic Dental, Healthscope Pathology and Quik Fix Café.
