Gold Coast’s first respiratory clinic opens at Burleigh Waters today to detect coronavirus hotspots in community

A pop-up respiratory clinic will open on the Gold Coast today with a mission to track down potential coronavirus hot spots across the city.

A POP-UP respiratory clinic is opening in Burleigh Waters today as health authorities bolster their testing capabilities on the Gold Coast in a bid to locate potential coronavirus hotspots.

Gold Coast Primary Health Network board chair Dr Roger Halliwell said the Commonwealth Government-funded respiratory clinic at Burleigh Waters was available by appointment only, either by phone or booking online, to avoid queues of people.

Registered Nurse Angel Anderson in her PPE at the Burleigh Cove Respiratory Centre. Picture Glenn Hampson

“The government’s restrictive testing guidelines have been relaxed considerably, and while there’s no new cases in the past 24 hours in Queensland, these clinics will be testing to see if hot spots are popping up in certain parts of the Gold Coast,” he said yesterday.

“Positive cases leads to contract tracing, which is a very detailed but necessary process in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus.”

Located at 13/109 West Burleigh Road, the Burleigh Cove Respiratory Clinic is one of four hotspot clinics being set up across the city in the next few weeks, with others to be located at Nerang, Upper Coomera and Hope Island.

Last month, Dr Halliwell said authorities were preparing for at least a quarter of Gold Coasters – about 140,000 people – to be infected by COVID-19 by the end of September.

Of those, health bosses were expecting 27,000 coronavirus sufferers to receive hospital treatment in the next six months.

Burleigh Cove Respiratory Clinic is open on the Gold Coast to test for COVID-19. Picture Glenn Hampson

Dr Halliwell said anyone that was short of breath and feeling terrible should call an ambulance and that the clinic was not a general practice.

“The Burleigh Cove Respiratory Clinic is for people with mild to moderate symptoms of cough, fever, shortness of breath, sore throat, potentially relating to COVID-19,” he said.

Doctors and nurses associated with nearby Burleigh Cove Medical are staffing the clinic and will assess people and potentially test them for the virus.

Mild cases would be treated at home through a “virtual ward” whereby health officials would contact them at least once day.

To book a free appointment at the clinic, from 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday, call 0410 831 919 or visit www.burleighcrc.com.au.