Indigenous health first
Taking shape: Leongatha Healthcare doctors Joy and Tim Linton with Professor Marlene Drysdale of Australian General Practice Training.
A SOUTH Gippsland medical clinic is leading the way in indigenous health.
Leongatha Healthcare is offering a clinic just for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in a bid to improve the health and wellbeing of indigenous people.
The clinic opens one afternoon a month at the group’s Inverloch practice. It’s the first of its kind in this area.
The news was revealed at an indigenous health forum at Inverloch last Tuesday.
Leongatha Healthcare general practitioners Tim and Joy Linton were guest speakers.
The model champions the change in direction for the treatment of indigenous people called for by Aboriginal leaders at the forum.
“We are doing it to show respect to people, to show we know they have specific health needs,” Dr Tim Linton said.
The clinic was driven by Sonia Weston, manager of Ramahyuck Aboriginal Health Services at Wonthaggi and will be partly funded through the indigenous health program, Close the Gap, driven by the Council of Australian Governments.
“The clinic will look at all impacts of health on people’s family life. We can offer longer appointments and people can wander in and out as much as they like,” Dr Linton said.
“We try to be more flexible in how it runs.
“The biggest reason for it is that it gives us more time to achieve some of the health assessments that need to happen.”
The clinics open on the afternoon of the first Thursday of the month.
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