I'd like to let all Australian and New Zealand members know of the wonderful service that is available to them In Victoria it is called Nurse on Call, and throughout the article I will refer to them as this, but in other states it has different names. It's a phone
line that you can call to get information and advice from registered nurses in times of medical concern. Keep the number close to your phone:
Victoria - Nurse on Call - 1300 60 60 24 (for the cost of a local call)
Western Australia, South Australia, NT and ACT - HealthDirect - 1800 022 222 (residents of NSW and Tasmania will be added to this service soon, and it is expected that by 2011 it will be nationwide.) This number is free of charge.
New Zealand - Healthline - 0800 611 116 - this number is free of charge.
They call it Telephone Triage. I have used Nurse on Call three times now, and am extremely grateful that such a service exists.
The first time I rang was for my husband. It was to do with discomfort caused by post-operative bedsores, and I recall that the phone conversation saved me a trip to the hospital (we couldn't have got there easily as my husband was bedridden). They asked me many detailed questions, and suggested things we could to to help with the pain, and to watch for so we would know when to seek further medical help.
The second time I rang it was for myself. I had developed what I assumed was a UTI, and I was beginning to pass blood. I wanted to know if I should wait until the next working day, or if I needed to get to a hospital that night. Once again, with detailed questioning, they were able to advise me, and make me feel calmer about the situation. Once again, the hospital trip was unnecessary.
The third time, my 3 year old son burnt himself quite badly. He got up to the stove and tried to stir the pasta sauce. He splashed some onto his hand and arm. I have never heard him scream so hard, and I hope I never hear it again. I put it straight under running water, and after a time, I looked at his arm to see how bad it was. There were some nasty looking blisters appearing on his hand and a few patches on his arm that were red and angry.
I rang the Nurse on Call hotline to ask them whether this degree of burning would require a hospital visit. As expected, the nurse asked many detailed questions, and then suggested that the injury could be managed by me at home, and gave me a list of things to do and to watch for, in which case I was to seek further medical help. With the instructions given, I was able to make my son comfortable and watch him over the next few days and weeks. His burns healed well, with minimal scarring, and except for the initial pain, he didn't suffer very much.
This service made me feel much more confident to manage some medical situations myself, rather than add to the overloaded hospital system. I have spent many nights sitting in the emergency waiting room at hospitals, just in case something is a problem. Using this phone service, you get through straight away, and speak to qualified people who have structured questioning that they go through to provide you with the best advice you can get, at any time of the day or night.
I don't know if a service like this exists for other countries apart from the ones I've mentioned, I hope there is.
If you have a medical emergency, please call the ambulance straight away, but if the problem is not an emergency, and you don't know whether to go to the doctor or hospital, or even if you're not sure what health services are in your area, then try this service.
