Everyday families are supported by their local GP; Doctors that manage all of those day to day and sometimes life changing health events.  Without them we are all just a little stuck. Clinics are open longer to assist however even GPs need a break. Up until a few years ago if someone got sick after hours it was a case of go it alone or visit the emergency department.

Thankfully now we have an alternative with dedicated after-hour medical services available to cover GP clinics when they are closed – in the evening during the week, Saturday afternoons and night as well as all day Sunday and public holidays.

The team at Dial A Home Doctor actively encourage all patients to see their own GP on a regular basis as there is no substitute for someone that knows you, knows your situation and history.

However there may be times where your GP just isn’t available, such as public holidays,  or when a child comes home from school unwell – you’ve just walked in the door from work and your GP is closed.

Or its Saturday evening, your elderly mum or dad has a cough that is worse and you are worried that they shouldn’t wait until Monday.

At times like this, having the ability to call on a free bulk billed home doctor service can be invaluable.

The Dial A Home Doctor team will visit you at home, provide necessary scripts and in many cases provide you with enough medication until the pharmacy opens. This way someone that is ill can stay safe and comfortable in their own home.

Dial A Home Doctor offers remarkable medical care when you need it most. If someone at home is sick after hours or on the weekend, just dial a home doctor on 139999.

Dial A Home Doctor is a free bulk billed after-hours Doctor service – We Come To You.

*Home Doctor Guaranteed within 90mins. If you book online Mon-Fri by 4:30pm, Sat & Sun by 10:30am. We reserve the right to take more time in case of giving priority to more serious conditioned patients as we always attempt to prioritise young children and the elderly.

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition

Did you know that July was JULeYe month? A month dedicated to raising the awareness of eye health – did you see it? (LOL note the pun!)

Vision loss like many health concerns only becomes an issue when you begin to experience it. Losing a key sense can be debilitating and can affect day to day life in an enormous way. From being able to read a book to driving a vehicle. Sight is often the overlooked sense in terms of regular health checks.

Good eye health starts with regular testing from a young age as eye disease is not just an affliction of the elderly.

Here are 5 tips for children’s eye health that as parents we can all encourage including carrots!

Be Eye Aware: Early detection and treatment is the best defence against eye disease. Symptoms to watch out for include rubbing of eyes, poor hand-eye co-ordination, lack of concentration and complaining of headaches, blurred or double vision;

Green is Great! Provide your child with a balanced, nutritious diet rich in fruit and vegetables. Dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach and yellow vegetables such as pumpkin and carrot will help to keep your child’s eyes healthy; yes carrots do help you see in the dark!

Hats Help: Make sure that your child always wears a broad­‐brimmed hat when playing outside as this will reduce the amount of UV reaching your child’s eyes by up to half;

Specs Appeal: When in the sun, make sure your child wears sunglasses with UV to protect their eyes from damaging UV rays; Slip Slop Slap and WRAP on some sunnies is a great way to encourage our children to focus (yes another pun!)

Balls Galore: Encourage appropriate eye protection when your child is playing sports. Fast action sports such as tennis, hockey and cricket can provide some serious eye damage if the hand eye coordination is slightly off and there isn’t any protection!

Dial A Home Doctor offers remarkable medical care when you need it most. If someone at home is sick after hours or on the weekend, just dial a home doctor on 139999.

Dial A Home Doctor is a free bulk billed after-hours Doctor service – We Come To You.

*Home Doctor Guaranteed within 90mins. If you book online Mon-Fri by 4:30pm, Sat & Sun by 10:30am. We reserve the right to take more time in case of giving priority to more serious conditioned patients as we always attempt to prioritise young children and the elderly.

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition

Now we all know about Grandmas recipe for fixing this ailment or that. The memories of castor oil as the panacea for all ills! And there is something to be said for some of the more sensible remedies. But then were the completely outrageous ideas that come under the category of “DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME!”

Urine cures acne!

Early American settlers had some pretty strange notions when it came to eradicating acne. One involved the application of urine to the outbreaks. Another called for using the water that collected in old tree stumps to bathe pimpled skin. Needless to say, neither has been studied nor is it worth trying.

Dirty socks cure sore throats!

Used widely until the 20th century, this remedy called for wrapping your own dirty socks around your throat. Our guess? Since sore throats are so contagious, and in the olden days a signal of potentially lethal diseases, the dirty socks were used to keep loved ones as far away as possible from the patient.

Chocolate-garlic cures memory loss!

An old, traditional memory-booster calls for dipping garlic cloves in chocolate and eating one to three of them a day. In theory, we think this makes tons of sense — the garlic and the chocolate are loaded to the gills with the kind of antioxidants that protect brain cells. But seriously, in practice? No thanks —chocolate-covered cranberries are so much tastier!

Rattlesnakes cures rheumatism!

An old cure for “rheumatism” was to kill a rattlesnake before it had a chance to strike (always a clever idea), skin it, dry it, and then put the remains in a jug of corn whiskey. Then, drink the whiskey. No surprise: There’s no science to support this (and it’s a little too dangerous to recommend).  And the fact we don’t have rattlesnakes here in Australia means this one is just a little limited!

*Home Doctor Guaranteed within 90mins. If you book online Mon-Fri by 4:30pm, Sat & Sun by 10:30am. We reserve the right to take more time in case of giving priority to more serious conditioned patients as we always attempt to prioritise young children and the elderly.  

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition

It seems like a bygone era, but it wasn’t so long ago that doctors would visit the sick at home and house calls were considered the norm.

The GP home visit is making a comeback though, as the Government Health Department urges people to keep the emergency department (ED) for emergencies. It is estimated that nearly 40 per cent of all ED presentations are deemed inappropriate or non-urgent, potentially GP-type visits that could have been managed in the community.

GPs that offer home visits after hours are on the rise in Queensland and the service is free under Medicare as it is a bulk billed service.

Mum-of-two and Dial A Home Doctor National Marketing Manager Donna Kirk said often people were just looking for reassurance that nothing more serious was wrong.

“Most people aren’t doctors, we don’t know what’s wrong with us,” she said. “We think we have the flu, but sometimes we’re just not sure.

“We’re looking for reassurance. And when the GP is closed, we think the only other place to get that reassurance is the ED. But there is another option – you can dial a home doctor on 139999 and have a doctor come to you.”

One group of people who can really benefit from after-hours GP home visits are the elderly in our community.

According to the Australian Centre for Health Research (ACHR), an increasing number of older patients (over 70 years) were attending the ED, many over four times per year.

Some elderly people tend to be more cautious and reluctant to put people out, preferring to be stoic, get through the night and wait until ‘normal hours’ to visit the doctor.

The problem is, as they become frailer, waiting 24 hours can actually cause more harm than you think. Having the flu will cause a more significant impact in an elderly person if they don’t see the doctor straight away.

Ms Kirk said apart from many people not realising the after-hours GP service existed, there was a common perception that calling a doctor to visit you at home was bound to be an expensive exercise.

“People think it’s going to be expensive,” she said. “But we are a bulk-billed service through Medicare. We are completely free.”

“Don’t be scared to ring! This is what we are here for.”

Dial A Home Doctor offers remarkable medical care when you need it most. If someone at home is sick after hours or on the weekend, just dial a home doctor on 139999.

Dial A Home Doctor is a free bulk billed after-hours Doctor service – We Come To You.

*Home Doctor Guaranteed within 90mins. If you book online Mon-Fri by 4:30pm, Sat & Sun by 10:30am. We reserve the right to take more time in case of giving priority to more serious conditioned patients as we always attempt to prioritise young children and the elderly.

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition

It is after-hours. Your child or elderly parent is unwell. In fact they have a raging temperature, are hot and cold, perhaps vomiting or complaining of a headache. The flu is rampant and as a carer, you just aren’t 100% sure whether you should seek urgent medical treatment or go it alone until the morning?

Waiting until the morning can provide for a sleepless night for all, and as we know a lack of sleep can impact even the most resilient of us.

So what do you do? You can pack the children up – yes the healthy ones too to head to your nearest public hospital’s emergency department. Remember to pack some snacks for the healthy hungry kids, possibly a bucket, towel, wet wipes and a blanket for the unwell patient. And don’t forget some activities to distract everyone during the long wait, and there will be a wait, potentially a wait until the wee hours of the morning.

The seats are cold and hard, the lights glaring and uncomfortable. The walk to the toilet is the only way to stretch the legs and your childs blanket is looking inviting… and you wait…

In Western Australia, on *Monday 21^st August at 2:35pm there was an estimated 3.2hour wait to be triaged (assessed) by the team at Joondalup Health Campus. That’s a long time when you have a restless sick child.

You are getting through the night sanity intact, when your child seems to perk up the minute the nurse walks in and calls your name  – you know this… you’ve been there! It’s been an interminable wait for a clinician to assess your child, identify it’s not life threatening and let you know you are on the list….

And you just want to go home, stretch out on your own bed and close your eyes…

And you can… if you know who to call.

By using the FREE Bulk Billed services of a house call doctor, such as Dial A Home Doctor, you get to:

• remain in the comfort of your own home
• manage other children easily by ensuring they are following their normal routine
• have a cup of tea and watch TV
• know your sick child or elderly parent is safe and COMFORTABLE with you.

Yes in peak periods such as Flu season, there might be a lengthy wait, but the experience of being in your own space minimizes the inconvenience. You can even let the ill patient sleep – in fact for children this can be a benefit as the Doctor can often assess a sleeping child better than an irritable crying child.

There isn’t any need to go it alone when you can simply Dial A Home Doctor, get a house call and its free!

Let’s work together and save emergency for emergency!

There is another solution

Courtesy http://www.health.wa.gov.au/emergencyactivity/edsv/index.cfm

While many grandparents play a key role in the lives of their children and grandchildren, there is a growing number of grandparents becoming the key carers of their grandchildren.

This can happen for a variety of reasons however the reason is almost a moot point when it comes to the day to day challenges of raising a child. The ‘why’ isn’t as important as the ‘how’!

The love and willingness of a grandparent can become the impetus to meet any challenge head on, and those challenges can be great.

Financial – when an older person has come to the end of their active income years, money can be tight, and we all know raising a child can be expensive!  Thankfully there is more financial support from the government to alleviate this.

Health – as we get older the aches and pains seem to become more noticeable and often chronic conditions warrant assistance for the older person. Let’s be frank, keeping up with a young man who wants to play footie every afternoon can tax even the younger parents!

Times have changed – staying up-to-date with technology and education can make a grandparent feel ‘out of touch’ as so much would have changed since their raised their own children.

What hasn’t changed is the worry a grandparent feels when their grandchild is sick. And when it’s after-hours, the usual GP clinic is closed and everyone is tired and just wants to relax. The thought of a few hours at the local hospital can also be mentally draining.

And this is where the services of people such as those from Dial A Home Doctor can help. Provided the child has a Medicare Card, and it’s not life-threatening, a local doctor can come to the family home and see the child.

This House Call Doctor service can be accessed as easily as dialing 139999. In peak periods, there may be a wait, however waiting at home with a cuppa in the warmth of home is far more tolerable than the cold hard emergency room chairs sharing bugs with everyone else.

So, if you know of a grandparent looking after their grandchildren, tell them about Dial A Home Doctor and encourage them to call anytime they or their grandchildren need a doctor after-hours.

Dial A Home Doctor is a free bulk billed after-hours Doctor service – We Come To You.

*Home Doctor Guaranteed within 90mins. If you book online Mon-Fri by 4:30pm, Sat & Sun by 10:30am. We reserve the right to take more time in case of giving priority to more serious conditioned patients as we always attempt to prioritise young children and the elderly.

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition

Flu season seems to have become a fact of life – and with it numerous theories as to why it exists. Here are just a couple of theories making for interesting reading.

The temperature drops so the air con goes up a notch (or ten!), and the fires are lit.

Sunlight hours become shorter, and the days at work feel longer when you leave in the dark and arrive home after dark.

And there is almost always someone in the house with the sniffles, a scratchy throat and you wish you had taken shares in a pharmaceutical firm when you were young!

And for something so prevalent and routine, you would think that there would be some solid facts as to why this happens….

However there are just theories… and here are a few simplified theories for you to ponder..

Germs can linger for a long time on an underground train (Credit: Getty Images)

Theory #1 we spend more time inside

It’s cold, raining and or foggy, so we hang out together inside more so than in summer.

Because we’re in closer contact with other people who may be carrying germs, we’re more likely to come into contact with the bugs, viruses and bacteria than when we are outside in the sunshine and fresh air.

Theory #2 without much sunlight, we may run low on Vitamin D, weakening our immune system

Remember your mum or Nanna telling you to go and get some fresh air … It was for a very good reason! The sun and fresh air in the lungs doesn’t just make you feel better, Vitamin D is something we all need and with winter, less sunshine could equate to a lack of Vitamin D – and Vitamin D powers the body’s immune system.. so less of it could be impacting our susceptibility to colds and winter bugs.

Another popular idea concerned our physiology: the cold weather wears down your body’s defences against infection. In the short days of winter, without much sunlight, we may run low on Vitamin D, which helps power the body’s immune system, making us more vulnerable to infection.

Theory #3 Wet hair can give us a cold

Did you know that when we breathe in cold air, the blood vessels in our nose constrict to stop us losing heat? This may prevent white blood cells (the warriors that fight germs) from reaching our mucus membranes and killing any viruses that we inhale, allowing them to slip past our defences unnoticed. This is possibly the theory behind the thought that we tend to catch a cold if we go around with wet hair.

Theory #4 cold air is drier and means viruses and bugs float longer

In moist air, particles may remain relatively large, and drop to the floor. In dry air, they break up into smaller pieces – eventually becoming so small that they can float for longer. Colder winter air is drier than warmer summer, more humid air.

This suggests that when you enter a cold but drier room its previous occupants ‘leftovers’ of coughs and sneezes are more likely to still be floating around. Viruses in drier air can float around and stay active for hours – until it is inhaled or ingested, and can lodge in the cells in your throat.

Air conditioning (provided they are regularly maintained) can filter out germs before they circulate which negates the claim you are more likely to get sick on a plane…. Although personally having just flown from overseas, I am sure I am getting a cold!

There is some suggestion though that germs may act somewhat differently in more tropical areas such as Northern Queensland.

Regardless of the theory, if you find yourself feeling under the weather and have a cold or the flu, how you got it doesn’t matter. Making you feel better does!

If you or a loved on becomes sick at night and your usual Doctor or medical centre is closed call your local after hours Doctor on 13 99 99 and we will be there in *90minutes Guaranteed

*Home Doctor Guaranteed within 90mins. If you book online Mon-Fri by 4:30pm, Sat & Sun by 10:30am. We reserve the right to take more time in case of giving priority to more serious conditioned patients as we always attempt to prioritise young children and the elderly.

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition

And it should – Australia has one of the highest bowel cancer rates in the world!

But there is a lot we can all do about it starting right now!

Start talking about it! Perhaps not at the dinner table, but when we are with our loved ones, our friends and even our colleagues, we need to demystify some of the ikkiness around what Bowel Cancer is and isn’t.

So here are a few DID YOU KNOWS for you to arm yourself with:

• Around 25% of cases highlight a family history – this is why talking about it with your family is vital, so when you go to your Doctor for your next checkup, you can share that information – it might save your life!
• Bowel Cancer is called a number of things, such as rectal cancer, or colon cancer.
• There are numerous tests and not all involve the one you are thinking of right now. The National Bowel Screening Program offers a private and personal approach that if you are over 50 you need to take advantage of.
• 90% of cases can be treated successfully and you know there’s a catch right? You need to CATCH IT EARLY!

Now if you want to know the symptoms, go see your GP! We are not going to send you to Dr. Google for this one, it’s too important.

Of course if it’s after hours and you don’t feel so well, you call us. We are your local after hours Doctor Service & can be there in *90minutes GUARANTEED

• We send your notes to your usual GP or medical centre the following day
• It’s not an annoyance for us to come and see you at home so call us!
• We don’t replace your doctor, we simply provide that added support after hours when your usual doctor has gone home for a break.

Just book online or call  13 99 99

*Home Doctor Guaranteed within 90mins. If you book online Mon-Fri by 4:30pm, Sat & Sun by 10:30am. We reserve the right to take more time in case of giving priority to more serious conditioned patients as we always attempt to prioritise young children and the elderly.

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition

*Source  https://bowel-cancer.canceraustralia.gov.au/statistics