By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A late-night medical centre surprisingly tucked away in an industrial estate is easing the strain on Dandenong Hospital’s emergency department.
The Priority Primary Care Centre at 1/134 Logis Boulevard is treating up to 300 urgent patients a week for free – with the capacity to treat more.
Open from 7am-11pm seven days a week, the PPCC offers a shorter waiting time for urgent conditions that don’t require hospital care.
The State-funded service also helps patients unable to get an appointment with their GP. And that includes Victorian patients with or without a Medicare card.
The Greens Medical Group-run clinic treats sports injuries, minor ear, nose and throat infections, cuts, burns, sprains, abdominal pain and gastro as well as eye injuries.
It also provides X-ray and ultrasound imaging.
In “99 per cent” of cases, illnesses and injuries are treated on-site and not requiring a hospital transfer.
Business manager Riekie Jooste said the PPCC had been a “huge success” since opening in January, but its free service was still “under the radar” of many Greater Dandenong residents.
It planned to increase its capacity, with plans to hire a further emergency doctor.
Under the $70 million State-funded initiative, there are 24 PPCCs across Victoria to divert non-life-threatened patients from emergency departments.
“Financially the Government saves a lot of money,” Ms Jooste says.
“If there’s an influx of patients at Dandenong Hospital emergency department, the triage nurses will triage the less severe cases and give them the choice of coming (to the PPCC).
“It might save them four hours of waiting.
“Our greatest challenge is getting people from Dandenong emergency department to here.
“We are pushing for a bus route between the two.”
At the November state election, the Government pledged a $295 million expansion of Dandenong Hospital’s emergency department.
The hospital was being crushed during Covid’s peak period – with just 35 per cent of category 2 emergency patients seen within the 10 minute target time.
However, its ED wait times have improved significantly in the past six months, including before the PPCC opened.
Ninetieth-percentile wait times have dropped from a diabolical 122 minutes in January-March 2022 to 25 minutes in early 2023.
The least urgent cases can still languish for several hours in the ED waiting room.
At the Dandenong South PPCC, walk-in patients wait for much less time. At its most congested such as Friday nights and weekends, the wait is usually 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half.
Pre-booked appointments are also accepted.
Data from the PPCCs shows that lacerations, abdominal pain, and infections such as tonsilitis and urinary tract infections are the most common presentations – conditions that do not necessarily require emergency care.
Almost half of patients were attending after hours, and about a third of them were children.
