The opening of Morayfield's new Allied Health Hub is a fantastic Moreton Bay success story. It is a story of entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration, delivering an outstanding facility for the people of Caboolture and its surroundings. It is being offered when our health system is under enormous pressure, yet delivers leading-edge solutions in an integrated way that minimises delivery costs and achieves better outcomes and patient experiences.
The Allied Health Hub aims to be a one-stop shop where patients can see all their healthcare professionals in one place and with carefully integrated appointment planning in one visit. The new integrated delivery system replaces the need for patients to travel long distances to different ends of the city on multiple days to see their service provider. Besides meeting the enormous community demands for conventional services, the Allied Health Hub is very focused on supporting the needs of those with a disability and NDIS with its free advocacy services.
I sat down with Allied Health Hub entrepreneurs Tim Bradford, who has more than 10 years of experience in the disability industry; practice manager Deb Constance with more than 27 years of experience in allied health clinics; and GP at the health hub Dr Evan Jones, to learn more about the new Hub.
The concept of the Allied Health Hub came about after Deb pitched the idea at a Techstars Entrepreneurial start-up weekend and what followed was a collaboration between Deb, Tim and Evan resulting in this fabulous new facility. Tim and Evan recognised the many barriers to people in the area getting access to multidisciplinary health services. Massive and closed waiting lists, difficulty accessing funding, complexity and feeling overwhelmed are the norm. Additionally, there are further barriers for those with a disability accessing the NDIS, dealing with the red tape, making applications for assistance and complying with compliance requirements.
"The goal was to put together a multidisciplinary team where the client is at the centre of everything,” Tim said.
"We aim to provide a high-quality, truly patient-focused service with the patient at the heart of things with a multidisciplinary team. Our advantage here is that we can have input from all the Allied Health practitioners, doctors and specialists. And we know that if you can deliver this high-quality, multidisciplinary, integrated model of care, the care people get will be much better” Dr Jones added. “So, all the evidence shows us that a multidisciplinary, integrated, high-quality model gives excellent outcomes for patients, whereas traditionally delivered in a fragmented way. And so that's why our vision was about this. And in this community, as a GP, we see people who should be on the NDIS but are often refused for whatever reason. So, they needed to have an advocate to help them through the process of accessing funds. Then once they have NDIS funding, they will be able to access the services they need. It's all about thinking about the barriers to care and trying to break them down. So that people can access the care that they require.”
"The outcome of that is that we are doing what the NDIS is supposed to do, which is build capacity and help people become more independent, help them get back to work if that's what they want to do or become active members of society,” Tim points out. “And when you've got the need that we have in this area, if that's not how you do it, you create an ever-increasing pile of dependent people. So we're trying to help people regain their independence and dignity.”
A key to the success of the Allied Health Hub is the collaboration between the different practitioners, GPs and specialists with case conferencing, using a shared database to enable the multidisciplinary team to see what each other is doing with a focus on the patient's needs, priorities and goals. The result is that those with multiple health conditions can get better health outcomes.
The Hub offers various services, including
Psychology
Occupational Therapy
Podiatry
Exercise Pathology
Dietary Services
Physiotherapy
Psychiatry and more.
There will be a training centre, including kitchens for dietitians and psychologists to work with patients. They are already running special classes for Mum and bub, prenatal, postnatal, balance and fall prevention, classes for only Veterans, classes for fitness and much more. Eighteen practitioners are already working at the new Hub and there will be rapid expansion over the next year.
Finally, here is some good news for NDIS clients or those recently refused access to NDIS. You can visit the new Hub and see Disability Advocates, a charity, for a FREE review of your situation. They can explain everything, answer questions and suggest ways to access funding.
For more information visit https://www.alliedhealthhubmorayfield.com.au/ or phone (07) 2141 7848.
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