Tallangatta paramedics team up with town's hospital to provide care closer to home

Tallangatta Health Service is part of a trial project with Ambulance Victoria, which has had a community paramedic based at the hospital's urgent care centre two days a week to assist with emergency presentations and assessments of patients.

Paramedic Jo Brookes has played the role of Towong community support coordinator at Tallangatta since 2018 and said the trial had allowed the ambulance and health services to achieve the best outcomes for patients.

"We bring some ambulances in here with low acuity patients, which will benefit the whole community, rather than going all the way into Wodonga," she said.

"If we get here and they deteriorate, the crew is still here and we can continue on to Wodonga.

"There's also been a focus on patients (who call triple zero) that can be managed within the home.

"Once they (paramedics) have the skillset, it will assist in providing low acuity care within the home.

"I've learnt so much about health care services and I'm sure health care services have learnt about ambulance."

Ambulance Victoria paramedics in Tallangatta service the western end of the Towong Shire, with patients coming from as far as Mitta.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Tallangatta Health Service chief executive Denise Parry said the aim of the community was to keep people as close to home as possible unless it was necessary they be taken to Wodonga.

"The typical example might be someone on the footy field who rolls their ankle," Ms Parry said.

"They just need an assessment to see if they might need to go on further.

"They could also be splintered on a Saturday afternoon and come in for an X-ray on Monday and be put on crutches.

"That sort of treatment is close to home and you don't get stuck in Albury-Wodonga where you might be triaged as a four or five and sit there for hours.

"What care we can deliver here to support people being close to home is a priority for us, alongside making sure that care is safe and is high quality as well.

"As a small rural health service, you have to work in your clinical scope, but if we can care for you here we will."

Ms Parry said it was too early into the project to assess if the program had improved overall response times for the Tallangatta region.

Community paramedics will complete training through Monash University to further their community health skills, including wound care, pathology collection and palliative care.

The 12-month pilot program commenced in March.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: