An empowering one-day workshop for primary care providers and their teams in Cairns and Townsville, part of the regional Essential Skills Road Show, has provided crucial insights to enhance healthcare services in the northern Queensland region.

More than 100 primary care professionals from across the Cairns and Townsville regions have already participated in the workshops during the regional Essential Skills Road Show, hosted by Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN).

Deemed highly successful, participants praised the workshop’s value and relevance, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to expand their skills and knowledge.

Kicking off the roadshow in July, more than 50 primary health care professionals and their teams from Cairns and surrounding areas came together for the first workshop to learn from an impressive lineup of expert presenters.

The second workshop was held in Townsville and attended by more than 50 practice managers, owners, and reception staff working within primary care settings from across the region, including the rural and remote areas of Ingham, Charters Towers, Home Hill, Bowen, Hughenden, and Ayr.

The third workshop as part of the regional road show will be held in Mackay on 26 August.

Workshop presenters covered the latest and most relevant topics for primary care providers.

Health Industry Employment Principal Workplace Consultant Vanessa James-McPhee (Cairns workshop) and Services Director George Sotiris (Townsville workshop) delivered thought-provoking sessions on building strong foundations from the inside out.

PracticeHub Product Adoption Manager Anna-Maria Gibb shared invaluable tips for accreditation, providing participants with essential insights, and Avant Law Senior Associate Ben Ryan delivered a comprehensive legal update focusing on privacy and payroll tax, while Avant Business Development Manager Nev Donald provided insight into protecting your practice, and practice medical indemnity insurance.  

Keeping attendees well-informed and up to date, MediCoach Director Kim Poyner led an engaging session on Prioritisation of Patients: A Guide to Urgency for Non-clinical Staff (POPGUNS) patient triage where attendees gained valuable insights into effectively prioritising patient care to ensure every individual receives appropriate and timely care.

In addition, the workshops also featured a crucial session on occupational violence prevention and de-escalation techniques, conducted by the esteemed Senior Trainer Tracey Gardiner, from Occupational Violence Solutions.

Through innovative scenario-based training, workshop participants were immersed in real-life simulations, allowing them to practice and reflect on de-escalation strategies for handling angry and aggressive patients with confidence and compassion. 

Cairns’ workshop participants agreed the event was “well organised, great speakers, and time management”, with “good information to take back to my medical centre.” Other feedback included, “enjoyable and relevant education”, “a very informative, and fun event”, and “well organised, well done to Linda and Claire!”. 

Townsville participants praised the event for its value and relevance to their practice in primary care, with participants saying: "Thank you for providing education for practice managers and staff", "it's wonderful, and I personally value the updates very much and the opportunity to catch the presenters in person to ask questions specific to our clinic", and "I stayed for the full day, it was definitely worth it".

NQPHN thanks all presenters and participants for their active engagement and enthusiasm, and commitment to enhancing their skills and knowledge, which will undoubtedly have a positive ripple effect on the quality of healthcare services in northern Queensland. 

If you have questions about the events, please contact NQPHN primary care engagement team on 0488 223 301 or email kayla.vella@nqphn.com.au

The third and final Essential Skills Road Show workshop will be held in Mackay on Saturday 26 August 2023. It’s not too late to sign up, simply register here to secure your place.

One of the newest members of Northern Queensland Primary Health Network’s (NQPHN) Clinical Council has expanded her fast-growing multidisciplinary health service to Townsville.

Ingham-based Kara Christopher and her Optimise Health and Wellness practice is leasing a fully fitted medical centre in Pimlico.

The Optimise Clinical Director is an Occupational Therapist who started the business in Ingham in 2018 with two therapists, an assistant and trainee.

Kara said she moved to Ingham in 2014 for family reasons and started a part-time role at the local hospital before being appointed to full-time senior role. Later she worked with general practices and developed a private clinic at the Ingham Family Medical Practice. 

“This development grew into a full-time role at the practice.  In 2018, I decided to take the leap into developing my own private practice and Optimise Health and Wellness was born,” said Kara.

The business now employs 53 people in a range of allied health services from occupational therapy and mental health occupational therapy to conducting home and early childhood assessments, driving assessments, wound and ulcer care and helping people who have Parkinson’s disease.

Staff include occupational therapists, mental health occupational therapists, exercise physiologists, personal trainers, allied health assistants, dieticians, psychologists (partnering with Break Free Psychology), support coordinators, plan managers, support workers, recovery coaches, and an administration, finance, and management team.

Optimise opened a purpose-built $2.5m centre in Ingham earlier this year.

Kara said Townville was “a natural progression”.

“Having worked in Townsville for many years prior to relocating to Ingham, I continue to have strong community networks and the need for a service like ours is definitely there,” said Kara.

“We are aware of extensive wait lists for services such as occupational therapy, mental health occupational therapy, dietetics, to name but a few that we will be able to offer immediately on site. 

“I really don’t think there is another service like ours. We are a true multidisciplinary team, and we operate very collaboratively and see everyone, including our participants, as having a valuable role in our service delivery, quality improvement and, ultimately, the end product. 

Kara said she had previously delivered projects with NQPHN under the Connect to Wellbeing model and she hoped to partner again with NQPHN in the future. 

Kara joined the Clinical Council in July this year.