Community paramedic at Cygnet Family Practice set to improve health access for rural town

When Cygnet Family Practice opened an urgent and after-hours service last year, it was the first in Australia to do so — now its added a community paramedic. How it’ll help the regional town>>

Cygnet Family Practice owner Kerrie Duggan, left, community paramedic Ben Smith and nurse practitioner Samantha Beattie. Pic: Supplied.

Cygnet Family Practice is leading the way for urgent and after-hours primary care in the state by adding a qualified community paramedic to its clinic.

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

It has now added a former ambulance paramedic to the team.

For residents of Cygnet, the closest major hospital is a 110km return trip to Hobart, making trained emergency medicine individuals vital for rural patients.

Director of Cygnet Family Practice and nurse practitioner Kerrie Duggan said this “revolutionary” model of medical care allows staff to work to their full scope of care as a workaround to medical workforce shortages.

“We can attend to every patient and give a well-rounded scope of care to prevent long response times and give better healthcare to locals,” she said.

Patients are already seeing the benefits.

“We had a patient come in who had dislocated their finger and I haven’t been trained in how to do a nerve block,” Ms Duggan said.

“Our paramedic had so he did the nerve block and I did the X-ray.

“Isolated, we didn’t have the skills to do it, but putting those skills together meant we could treat that patient safely in a rural area without having to go to hospital.”

Community paramedic Ben Smith said the new position had left him feeling more fulfilled.

“I left being a full-time paramedic after 17 years and found that the long hours and the pressure had just left me wiped,” he said.

“The community paramedic role means I have less ongoing responsibilities, but still can use all of my skills in a meaningful way.”