Doctor Tanya Unni puts own money towards women’s health clinic to help Gold Coast mums
Border closures are limiting the support for mothers on the Gold Coast, so a local doctor has put her own money towards helping fix the issue.
Gold Coast
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A LEADING Gold Coast doctor plans to roll out women’s health clinics at her expense to feed demand for antenatal and post-natal care she believes is lacking during the pandemic.
Dr Tanya Unni runs Amtan Medical Centres with husband Dr Ameer Hamza with eight clinics on the Gold Coast, mostly in the northern corridor.
Dr Unni, the Ausmumpreneur award winner for 2020, said some mothers are not getting the medical or family support they would normally receive due to the NSW border closure and hospitals cancelling antenatal classes.
She said GPs can try to fill the void but it is difficult.
“Typically the time you have to spend with a patient is 15 minutes. These mums need more attention,” she said.
“You have stories of mums who cannot go and see their family in NSW or Victoria.
“With any pregnancy it is very important it gets supported in the community.”
Dr Unni said with her first pregnancy she received vital support from family in the six weeks after giving birth.
“I was confused thinking is the baby getting enough milk? Am I doing the right thing?”
She said this and the demographic profile of the northern corridor – a high percentage of young mothers – that motivated her to launch women’s health and midwifery care at Amtan.
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She plans starting with one room staffed by a midwife and GP at her Pimpama City clinic for women’s health services and rolling out classes and other services to other outlets in future.
The services will include health checks, nutrition plans, antenatal and post-natal care, baby massage sequences, settling techniques, sleep support, breast and bottle feeding specialists and more.
She said there would be no charge to patients.
“We are not replacing hospital services. We can be that bridge between the hospital and home care.”
Dr Unni said they would have strict COVID-19 screening protocols to protect patient health.
“We expect people who are not well would not come in.”
The launch date is September 29.
Coomera MP Michael Crandon said women’s health services in his electorate were lacking despite having the youngest electorate in the country.
He said mums had come to him on numerous occasions for help to bring relatives to the Gold Coast for extra support during pregnancy and after giving birth.
“Tanya’s idea is wonderfull. We are very short on the ground as far as health services are concerned other than GPs.”
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