Urgent Care Project

The project originally set out to develop well-defined models to guide urgent care services in rural towns that have differing levels of health services. A broad multi-disciplinary team, skilled in pre-hospital care, nursing, community development and education, undertook the task of providing rural communities with a way of dealing with their urgent care needs.

It was to recognised that rural urgent care systems consist of a mix of infrastructure and personnel elements. The balance of these elements is context driven, with geographic, social and economic environments having a huge impact on the ability of a rural community to develop and sustain an urgent care system.

A tangible outcome of the project was the development of a facilitation manual and associated materials. It is designed to assist rural communities determine their needs, assess their capacity to improve their situation, and plan the implementation of actions to make improvements.

The philosophy underlying the development and use of the process is the need for a local presence when providing information on how to access appropriate health services, the use of a broad community development approach and the need for improved coordination and collaboration between service providers.

Small rural communities wishing to improve their urgent care services can apply to be a pilot site, using the facilitation processes that have been developed.

For further information contact:

Mollie Burley, Monash University School of Rural Health