Health Care News and Issues

CHANGES AT THE PRACTICE

As many of you will be aware, we have recently had a couple of new doctors commence work at the practice, Dr Asha Deraniyagala and Dr Mahinda Yogam. We have a new doctor joining the practic in our Edney Road surgery, in July 2011, when Dr Ben Jesudas will be commencing. Another doctor will be joining the practice later this year in Newburn Road surgery, with a Dr George Rius coming over from Scotland. We have a new GP Registrar starting in July as well, with Dr Grania Murphy starting part time work in our Newburn Road surgery.

There has been a lot going on with the buildings at the practice. Our long term plans for the Kalamunda Surgery are coming to fruition (at long last!) We have also taken over the old Minerva Medical Rooms, following the closure of that practice. We now have 3 locations where we can provide General Practice services to our patient community. All of the surgeries are relatively closely located, all being within a 10 minute drive of each other. By having separate locations we feel that we can offer a more personal style of general practice, that might be lacking in some of the larger Superclinic concepts. Hopefully, you will like the changes and appreciate our committment to Kalamunda, High Wycombe and the Hills area generally.

More information of exactly where the surgeries are can be found on our "Maps" Link, or by Clicking Here.

INFLUENZA VACCINATIONS

"Flu Jabs" are still available at the practice. If you are over the age of 65 you are entitled to a free flu jab, otherwise the practice can supply you with a script and our practice nurse can administer the vaccination. Please phone to arrange an appointment to see the nurse or doctor, to make the use of this important protection against the winter flus. There is still time to make the most of this effective way to prevent the winter flus.

There are many current issues that effect the health and well being of our patients, alot of these issues are covered in great detail by some of the Government Health Web sites.

Please follow the links below.

NEW VACCINES for INFANTS

In addition to the free immunisation schedule that are supplied, by the Health Department, for all growing children, there are 3 other vaccines that are available. These are not free, but can be obtained from a Pharmacy with a GP prescription.

1. New Polio Vaccine (IPV) is recommended instead of the current oral polio vaccine (OPV), which is given at two, four, six months and four years of age. Cost about $53 per dose.
   Why is this recommended? IPV vaccine is recommended because there are no proven side effects - one in 10 children may, however, have inflammation at injection site, discomfort or fever. Whereas, OPV, currently used in Australia has these possible side effects:
   • Less than 1% of doses may result in fever, diarrhoea, headache or muscle pains.
   • One in 2.4 million doses may result in paralysis of the patient or a close contact of the patient.
2. Pneumococcal disease (7-Valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar(TM)) is recommended at two, four and six months of age for all children. Cost: 3 doses at about $145 each (only one dose is needed if the child is over 24 months old, two doses if 12-23 months old.
   Why is this recommended? Pneumococcus is a bacterial infection that can cause serious illness (mainly in children under the age of 5 years old) including pneumonia, meningitis (infection of the lining of the brain) and septicaemia (infection of the blood stream). It can also cause some types of ear infections. In Australia children under five years of age, almost nine out of every 100,000 could contract life-threatening pneumococcal disease. Serious side effects from the pneumococcal vaccine are rare. The common side effects are:
   • Inflammation at the injection site, fever.
3. Chickenpox (varicella zoster vaccine, Varivax(TM) or Varilix(TM)) is recommended at 18 months of age or between 10-13 years of age, for all children, who haven't already been infected with or been vaccinated against varicella (chickenpox). Cost: one dose only at about $60
   Why is this recommended? Generally a mild disease, chickenpox spreads very easily and can be fatal in one out of every 10,000 cases. One out of every 10,000 cases can also contract hepatitis (liver inflammation), brain inflammation and arthritis, and 23 out of every 10,000 could contract pneumonia. Serious side effects from chickenpox vaccination are rare. The common, temporary side effects are:
   • Soreness at the injection site.
   • Fever, rash.

Important Government sites are:

• Victorian Government Health
• South Australian Government Health
• West Australian Health Department

Another good site for upto date medical information and news is eMedical.

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