November 2004

District nurses offer choice

Local residents have more choice over their healthcare since the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) opened its Care and Assessment Centre in Box Hill.

Most nursing care provided by RDNS is to people in their homes with its Box Hill centre providing 66,704 home nursing visits last financial year.

But the RDNS Care and Assessment Centre—a modern, purpose-built facility—allows certain clients to be treated by a nurse in a professional clinic setting, rather than in their homes.

‘While RDNS is primarily a home-based nursing provider, we are always looking for new ways to give people more choice about their nursing care,’ said RDNS Box Hill Centre Manager Lynda Clark.

‘The Care and Assessment Centre allows local clients who are more mobile or less house-bound to make appointments to visit RDNS nurses at the centre at a time that is convenient for them, giving them that extra flexibility in their nursing care.

‘Of course, they are still guaranteed the high standard of nursing care and compassion for which RDNS is known,’ Ms Clark said.

The RDNS Care and Assessment Centre provides nursing care in three main areas–continence management, wound management and general assessment and treatment.

Apart from the extra choice in organising their timetables, clients also benefit from access to diagnostic equipment and can undergo specialist nursing reviews and treatments.

Clients accessing services at the Care and Assessment Centre need to have been assessed to be suitable to have their nursing needs met outside the home environment but can continue to have home nursing visits as part of their care.

‘For referrers of clients to RDNS, such as local general practitioners, Box Hill Hospital and other care facilities, the Care and Assessment Centre will offer an alternative form of access to district nursing expertise,’ said Centre Project Officer Janine Dankesreither.

‘Importantly, it will also provide their own patients with more choice and, in some cases, will mean an even faster response time for certain RDNS services.’

RDNS is Australia’s oldest and largest home nursing organisation, providing around 1.3 million home visits to more than 30,000 people across Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula each year.

The RDNS Care and Assessment Centre is located within Whitehorse Community Health Service at 43 Carrington Road, Box Hill.

• For more information contact RDNS Box Hill on 9890 2363.