(03) 5871 0777 24 - 32 Broadway Street, Cobram www.cobramdistricthealth.org.au

December 2017

Cobram District Health

Ladies to the rescue District Nurses Win Award

Joining Forces

Telephone Support

Next year the Ladies Auxiliary of Cobram District Health will be 70 years old. Initially formed to support the establishment of a public hospital back in 1948, the Ladies Auxiliary have poured countless hours of volunteer support into helping the Cobram community. In the early days they even cooked the meals! They have been a vibrant part of our service and it is clear they had some fun doing it too. As fund-raisers for the hospital they are without equal, having raised more than $650,000 over the years to help the hospital purchase those critical bits of equipment that were necessary to give a better service to our community. Just this month they donated $17,000 for electrically heated warming blankets for our day surgery unit and surgical instruments for our visiting orthopaedic surgeon Mr Critchley. Without the Ladies Auxiliary we would be a much poorer community. Ph Eve Hartsthorne on 5871 3274 to find out how you can help.

We are delighted to welcome a new senior dentist at Cobram District Health Dental Clinic. Dr Ashima Kumar has joined our Clinic after many years practising in Melbourne and running her own practice in Geelong. “My patients know me as a kind, gentle and caring dentist. I make my patients feel very comfortable and relaxed in dental chair despite their past/previous phobias of dentists. I love working with children. I like to focus a lot of preventative strategies so that the community have healthier teeth and habits for life.” She is experienced in all aspects of general dentistry. When her last job as a locum took her to Goondiwindi in Queensland, she decided that small town living was for her. The advantages over Melbourne were obvious. No traffic, 2 minutes to get anywhere. Plus she had heard that Cobram was very beautiful! She brings her 8 year old daughter Aavya with her. We hope you will welcome them to our community.

You should have received a postcard in your letterbox last month to inform you that Nathalia District Hospital, Cobram District Health and Numurkah District Health Service are exploring a proposal to join forces to improve service delivery and access to care for local communities – close to home. We are currently consulting with staff and the community to gain feedback on the proposal before any final decision is made.We want to reassure the community that providing consistent, high quality, safe and accessible care to the community is our priority. The existing facilities will remain in place, in their current locations. Current services will be maintained and enhanced to improve access and deliver the best possible health care locally. There will be no reduction in services, funding or staffing in relation to this proposal. Resources and expertise will be combined across the three services to better meet the needs of the community. We want to know what is important to staff and the community in order to inform how the new entity and its services will look and operate. We will keep people informed as we move through the process (via Website, Email, Mail, Media and Staff/Community Engagement Sessions). Visit the website www.ncnhealthservices.org.au for further information.

Cobram District Health District Nursing Service has been selected by GV Health as the winner of the 2017 Regional Link Clinician award for “changing the way we do wounds”. Within the District Nursing Service the Link clinician role is shared between Colleen Sim and Jenny Walsh. It is with their leadership, drive, passion and consistency that these great improvements have been made. Cobram joins previous winners Sharon Robinson- Yarrawonga Health (2016) and the inaugural winner Rachel O’Dwyer- Numurkah District Health Service (2015).Colleen and Jenny, along with many other district nurses have great wound knowledge. Approximately 20% of the district nursing service workload is wound care. The district nurses understand why you have a wound and what needs to be done to improve it. It is because of the clinical skills, knowledge and years of experience, that district nurses are able to assess, evaluate and discuss the treatment plan of how to best manage your wound. Together they can assist you to achieve your goal.

The phone system at Cobram District Health has been upgraded from a manual analogue system to a digital IP phone system which, among other things, allows us to transfer calls across the organisation. Previously if you phoned the front desk, we could not transfer the call to Community Health or the Dental Clinic. We would have to ask patients to hang up and dial a different number. With the new system we have one number (03 5871 0777) and a centralised call switching system. But with all system change comes teething problems.

We are still working to iron out the last kinks in the new telephone system. Members of the public may still be experiencing some delays and we thank you for your patience. These teething problems are not to be confused with the complete loss of service last Thursday 6th December which was caused by a Telstra fault. We thank the community for their patience and understanding on that difficult day.

Family and residents had a ball at our Christmas party last week.

Welcome to Our New Dentist Dr Ashima Kumar

Irvin House Xmas Party