Allied Health refers to a group of health professionals distinct from Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing. Combined, allied health professionals provide a distinct range of diagnostic, therapeutic and support services for patients. In the community, allied health professionals are an essential part of the multidisciplinary team and work very closely with GPs and specialists to achieve optimal patient care. They each have an area of expertise where they possess specialty knowledge and skills to ensure the best outcomes.
Co-locating services and working collaboratively ensures all members of the healthcare team offer the best possible care for the patient, while keeping in mind the patient’s desire for quality and convenience. As such trusted allied health services have co-located at Hunters Hill Medical Practice so they can provide services locally to patients. This brings enormous advantages with regards to accessibility, time efficiency and communication.
A typical example might be the time saved by an adult child who has taken a morning away from work to bring their elderly parent to the doctor. We can organise for the patient to see the GP, have a dressing done with the nurse, see the podiatrist for their diabetic foot care, have blood collected, and then see the endocrinologist – all on the same day. This may have taken 3 or 4 trips otherwise. The other benefit is that all those practitioners get to know each other and can work collaboratively as a team to achieve patient-centred care.
