Unlike Emergency Departments that operate within public hospitals and some private hospitals, a Walk-in Specialist Emergency Clinic is located in the community and designed to provide comprehensive, coordinated acute care – from initial consultation and diagnostic services, to treatment and specialist referral if required – without the patient having to visit a hospital.
The first WiSE Clinic opened in Macquarie Park (North Ryde), New South Wales in early 2017, delivering immediate medical care when accidents or emergencies require more than a GP visit and are considered non-life threatening or unlikely to require admission to hospital.
Australian health journal spoke to the visionary, founder and CEO behind this WiSE Specialist Emergency clinic, Dr Pankaj Arora.
Dr Arora talks about the origins of his journey in emergency departments working in four continents as an Emergency Room physician for the past 28 years. His passion is to develop health care systems to help acute care in the community.
Stating 70% of people presenting at Emergency Departments in Australian Hospitals, not getting admitted, 7 years ago Dr Arora modelled these patients presenting to ER but breaking away from the hospital setting. This break away setting would deliver treatment by a team of doctors, allied health specialists, radiology, fracture clinic, chest pain clinic, TIA clinic, early pregnancy clinic and pathology services all co-located in the single facility.
Since putting the model in place and opening in 2017, the Macquarie Park WiSE Emergency Specialist Clinic has treated over 70,000 patients. Dr Arora sees it as a very efficient and cost effective model, where the patient is seen by a specialist in a multidisciplinary team within half an hour and receives results within an hour. He emphasises the clinic has not replaced General Practice nor the Emergency Department in hospital.
From the success of the Macquarie Park, NSW clinic, last year Dr Arora set his plans in motion to open a 2nd WiSE emergency specialist care clinic, this time in Queensland. This happened only after 3 years of planning and modelling prior to the opening of the new centre in September 2022. However since opening in Robina, Gold Coast, the new WiSE clinic has been treating on average 20 patients per day – a faster rate than the first 6 months of the Macquarie Park, NSW clinic.
In closing Dr Arora talks about the differences between the WiSE model and urgent care clinics. Scaled down versions of emergency care departments in urgent care centres fail to address the treatment required for patients between General Practice and at hospital emergency departments.
His plans now include opening 10 clinics in the next 5 years, with an expectation that 20-50 clinics would be needed across Australia in the medium to long term.
You Might also like
-
Redefining diversity in clinical trials
Ensuring inclusion, diversity, equity and patient input in the development of novel drugs and medical devices has become well accepted in health care. However appropriate implementation of these elements has been a challenge for many. Only by implementing these conscious inputs can patient outcomes be improved and health disparities in marginalised groups be addressed.
Australian Health Journal spoke to Gillian Mason, Consumer and Community Involvement Lead at Hunter Medical Research Institute in Newcastle, NSW on this topic discussed at the recent ARCS Conference in Sydney.
-
Handling modern day diets and misinformation as a HCP
Laureate Professor Clare Collins AO in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle, emphasises the need for accurate and reliable nutrition information to reach the public. Prof Collins believes that it is vital for clinicians to stay up-to-date with cutting-edge nutrition science and work with communication organisations to disseminate information to the general public. This is particularly important as social media is full of both reliable and unreliable information on dietary patterns, such as veganism.
-
Ensuring stringent quality standards in the lifecycle of medical devices
Dr Jasjit Baveja is the Associate Director of Policy at the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), where she oversees regulatory affairs, clinical code of practice, procurement, industry policy, reimbursement, and advocacy. With over 20 years of experience in the medical device regulatory space, Dr Bavej’s expertise lies in providing educational opportunities for regulatory professionals in Australia to ensure continuous learning and professional development. She collaborates closely with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to run workshops that provide invaluable experience, networking opportunities, and skill enhancement.