Opening of around-the-clock Perth-based health advice service - 'HealthDirect'

29/5/99
An around-the-clock health advice service for the general public will be opened by Health Minister John Day today.
Known as HealthDirect, the new Perth-based service is the first of its kind in Australia and will be available to the public seven days a week.
"HealthDirect is a $6 million joint initiative of the State and Commonwealth Governments," Mr Day said.
"HealthDirect will give the public access through free telephone calls to registered nurses any hour of the day or night for advice and information.
"People will be connected to an experienced nurse who will assess the level of care they need, the urgency and then provide immediate advice.
"Where professional help is required, the caller will be advised of the closest available service by the registered nurse, who will draw on a geographic database of health care providers."
Perth's public hospitals are currently receiving more than 80,000 calls a year in their emergency departments.
Mr Day said HealthDirect would now handle the vast majority of these calls.
"Our public hospital emergency centres are extremely busy places and this service will help free up medical staff to look after their patients," he said.
"The demand for a service of this type will be high. Over the past couple of months, HealthDirect has been in a fine-tuning stage and, even without any publicity, has been taking up to 100 calls a day redirected from hospitals.
"It is expected that once people become aware of the service, the number of calls will rise quickly to 200 and possibly up to 500 calls a day."
To implement the new service, an agreement was reached with High Performance Healthcare to run the telephone advice service in Perth.
High Performance Healthcare has been providing high quality telephone-based health information and advice services in Australia for more than 10 years.
From today, the public will be able to call HealthDirect by telephoning freecall 1800 022 222.
"To ensure the public is aware of the number, a comprehensive public awareness campaign will roll-out over the next couple of weeks," Mr Day said.
"Advertisements will be placed in newspapers and next month, every household in the metropolitan area will receive a brochure about the service.
"This brochure will include stickers that can be peeled off and stuck on or near the telephone, and a wallet card that can be kept for easy reference.
"Two television commercials promoting the service will also be aired."
Media contact: Caroline Lacy 9424 7450