If you've had the misfortune of spending any time at the emergency department on a Saturday afternoon in the cooler months, you'll know it's often packed with kids sporting various bumps and bruises.
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According to physiotherapist Dr Laura Clarke, the winter sports season is responsible for a big spike in fractures and other injuries, with various football codes accounting for most of the injuries she treats.
Starting this week, Dr Clarke will be heading up a new private fracture clinic in Wollongong, which is designed to help take the pressure off the overburdened public hospital.
Owned by Wollongong orthopaedic surgeon Dr Meghan Dares, the clinic at Joint Vision Orthopaedic Group will open for a three month trial on Saturday afternoon's for four hours specifically to cater for kids sports injuries.
It will also open on weekday afternoons.
"The population has just exploded, which has created more demand on the hospital, which is why we are starting this fracture clinic," Dr Clarke said.
"Who wants to wait in ED for five or six hours. Yes, there may be an out of pocket expense but compared to the Sydney it will be affordable. In Sydney if you walk through the door of a private ED, it's up around the $450 mark.
"Here it will be $250, and you can get some back on your private extras, and you're not sitting in a waiting room with a lot of sick people."
According to the latest data, patients presenting to Wollongong hospital spend an average of four hours and 42 minutes in the ED between arrival to leaving, while one in 10 patients waits for 16 hours and 27 minutes.
Dr Clarke said patients at the fracture clinic would be managed within an hour, with facilities for putting casts on and doing x-ray and ultrasounds contained within the private clinic.
"A surgeon can look at the images straight away and if you do need something more, we can action that a lot quicker because we have our three surgeons here," Dr Clarke said.
"We want to help the community and offload some of the pressure of the public system."
Dr Clarke said the clinic had been operating on an informal GP referral basis, but that it would now be open to the public with an online booking system.
Bulli Hospital, which provides public urgent care for minor injuries and illnesses, is also now opening on Saturdays from 8am to 4.30pm.
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
