01 June 2009

Swine Flu Clinics

NSW Minister for Health, John Della Bosca, has announced Swine Flu clinics are being established in public hospitals throughout the state.

“The establishment of the clinics is part of the State Government’s operational pandemic planning to assist in the management of the virus,” the Minister said.

“The clinics will allow the rapid assessment of people who have symptoms of human swine influenza or have recently travelled to affected countries,” he added.

Flu clinics are at the following locations:

• Gosford Hospital
• Liverpool Hospital
• Prince of Wales Hospital
• Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
• Royal North Shore Hospital
• St George Hospital
• Sydney Hospital
• Wollongong Hospital
• Hornsby Hospital

The following hospitals are on standby to establish flu clinics as the local need arises:

• Bankstown Hospital
• Bowral Hospital
• Camden/Campbelltown Hospital
• Canterbury Hospital
• Concord Hospital
• Fairfield Hospital
• Milton Ulladulla Hospital
• John Hunter Hospital
• Shellharbour Hospital
• Shoalhaven Hospital
• St Vincent’s Hospital
• Sutherland Hospital

“These clinics will allow patients to be seen in a location separate to emergency departments, allowing those departments to continue to assess and manage patients with emergency health issues, and to enable GPs to maintain their essential primary care role,” the Minister said.

“As we are now in the next stage of the containment phase, flu clinics will be set up across NSW hospitals as the demand arises and will operate on an as needs’ basis.

“People who are seen at the clinics will be assessed for their risk of human swine influenza, tested if required and managed appropriately.

“If it is possible that a person with symptoms of influenza has human swine flu, they will be tested and placed into home isolation until the results of the test are known. These people will also be provided with free Tamiflu if required,” Mr Della Bosca said.

“People in home isolation or quarantine will be followed up every day by public health staff.

“Importantly, dedicated isolation units are not required for cases of human swine influenza that are admitted to hospital. Cases requiring admission to hospital will be accommodated in a single room.

“The community has been co-operating very well with our public health requests, which is helping to prevent local transmission of human swine influenza across NSW,” Mr Della Bosca added.

Further information is available from the Swine Flu hotline on 180 2007 and at the NSW Health website: www.health.nsw.gov.au

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au