Cygnet Family Practice becomes the first practice in Australia to bring in urgent, after hours service

A Huon Valley surgery has become the first in the country to offer urgent and after hours services through its nurse practitioners – amid a healthcare staffing crisis gripping the state.

Cygnet Family Practice nurse practitioners Andrew Keegan, Kerrie Duggan, Michael Holroyd, Ali Spicer and Carly Grey.

A national first in emergency care models is being celebrated for not only the difference it has made for its local community, but for the difference made to medical professionals’ lives.

Cygnet Family Practice in the Huon Valley became the first general practice in Australia to implement an urgent and after hours service in April of this year, run solely by the practices nurse practitioners.

The project allows GPs and pharmacies to deliver urgent care to community members.

Director of Cygnet Family Practice and nurse practitioner Kerrie Duggan has seen the difference first-hand in patients being redirected from traditional 9-5 GPs and emergency departments.

“We have the solution to long waiting times to see a doctor and not being able to be seen on the day when you or your family are sick or injured,” Ms Duggan said.

Director of Cygnet Family Practice and nurse practitioner Kerrie Duggan at the official opening of the Cygnet Family Practice's Urgent and After Hours Care Clinic.

“Now in collaboration with Ambulance Tasmania, non-urgent ambulance calls are being referred to our service.”

Focusing on urgent care, not emergency care, Ms Duggan said the service has brought in an extra 72 appointments per week in the Huon Valley, as well as allowing for home visits and treatment that caters to those with mobility or travel issues.

“Just the other week, two of our nurse practitioners were able to travel to a patient to treat her post-operative wounds,” she said.

“She had surgery on her hip and was unable to travel to the clinic and was stuck on the second floor of her house.

“This would have been another ambulance call-out for a non-urgent issue if she didn’t have our service.”

Treatments vary for nurse practitioners from wound care to respiratory illnesses or even immunisations – all able to be treated by the highly qualified clinical nurses with Masters degrees.

Ms Duggan said this model of healthcare could address a lot of issues in the state’s stretched system – including ambulance ramping.

“This partnership impacts on ramping patients at the hospital, and the time paramedics are unavailable to the community with less non-emergency patients getting care they need locally,” she said.

“All the research also shows that with more elders and people with long-term conditions, the number of visits these people see with their GPs increases.

“We help address this added need in the community and are another line of assistance.”

Nurse practitioner and paramedic Ali Spicer said the cases they have covered in the past four months showed the true extent to how well nurse-run urgent care services could work.

“Trevor was a short of breath patient who couldn’t get to the hospital or GP during business hours because he worked all the time,” Ms Spicer said.

Cygnet Family Practice nurse practitioners Andrew Keegan, Kerrie Duggan, Michael Holroyd, Ali Spicer and Carly Grey.

“Since we were open on Saturdays, he could come in to us.

“While his outcome wasn’t good, we could still refer him on to the services he needed and the partnerships we have with different services allow us to continue to direct patients as needed.”

Ms Duggan said while this model had proven useful through state government funding, “innovative options” to the nation’s healthcare crisis needed to be found.

“Enough time has been wasted,” she said.

“We have a practical working model that with further funding support and changes made to outdated legislation, this service can be implemented to a seven days a week without current barriers to practice and replicated around the state and Australia.”

Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the Tasmanian Government would look to work with the Federal Government to improve primary health.

“If we are serious about fixing the strain on our emergency departments, we have to have better access and more primary health care services,” Mr Rockliff said.

“I’m conscious of the fact that the pressure on our emergency health services and surgery waitlists is there.

“If you consider that four out of 10 people that attend an emergency department could be addressed at a lower level of care in the community, then innovative models like these need to be strengthened and carried further afield.”