Lismore’s Keen Street Clinic, pictured during the flood clean-up, is one of 17 COVID-19 vaccination sites to receive Australian Government flood recovery assistance to help them get back up and running.
Dr Michele Blandford from the Keen Street Clinic welcomed the funding support, which she said provided a significant boost in helping the practice return to its original, severely flood-impacted site.
‘This in turn will allow us to resume provision of COVID-19 vaccinations, along with other routine vaccinations, including for children and for influenza, as well as a host of other community and patient services,’ Dr Blandford said.
‘COVID-19 care is a high priority for our patients, and we have enquiries on a daily basis as to when we will be able to return to providing vaccinations. This funding will make all the difference in getting us back on track to vaccinating.’
The assistance is part of wider support provided by the Australian Government through the PHN program as part of the Northern NSW flood recovery efforts. A second funding phase is due to be announced soon.
The next phase will provide local primary care services with access to debriefing and wellbeing support, as well as workforce surge options. This offer has been developed in response to feedback from Healthy North Coast’s flood impact survey and co-designed with local impacted services.
Included in the survey findings were:
- 83% of respondents said they were concerned about staff wellbeing, burnout and fatigue
- 67% said they were concerned about the ability of health professionals to have a rest
- the top 3 workforce initiatives that services were interested in using were:
- free locum services (52%)
- education for staff (39%)
- staff debriefing and wellbeing support (38%).