Altona North Respiratory Clinic

Victoria’s first GP-led Respiratory Clinic

Altona North Respiratory Clinic is a project of Cirqit Health, run through Altona North Medical Group and Circle Health.

In March 2020, Cirqit began planning Victoria’s first GP-led Respiratory Clinic. At this time, we were seeing outbreaks in China and European countries and frontline medical staff suffering on wards with minimal training or PPE. We were operational within the space of ten days, bringing together a clinical team and support team of 30 individuals, training them in infection control and new approaches to general practice.

We have since grown to over 60 staff, providing not only COVID testing, but specifically a rigorous respiratory assessment with a team of GPs, Nurses, and Health Assistants.

After booking online or via telephone, a nurse conducts pre-triaging by Telehealth, and clinical observations are recorded on arrival. The consultation itself is conducted in full PPE, with a scribe taking clinical notes remotely and a health assistant supporting the general practitioner. All swabs are processed externally, and when results are processed we inform the patient and forward notes on to their regular GP.

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Respiratory Clinic Patient

A Diverse Team

Our approach distributes the load of work between doctors, nurses, receptionists and health assistants.

We are fortunate to employ an array of skillsets, including those of deposed staff from the hospitality, education, textiles and travel industries. Cirqit Health believes in supporting trainees and recent graduates in medical disciplines, and we also are proud to employ trainee paramedics and nurses.

Infection Control

All our staff are trained in infection control procedures, including correct hand washing techniques, donning and doffing a full set of PPE, “deep cleaning” rooms after usage, and many other processes that make up our operation. We take infection control very seriously and since the start of the pandemic employed a “no PPE, no testing” mindset.

Academic Rigour

We have commissioned The University of Melbourne’s Department of General Practice to run an evaluation of both our Drive Through Testing Centre and more recently our Respiratory Disease Clinic.

The evaluation comprised the following components: observations, interviews and document review to capture and assess the safety; and review of resources and spend.

The research team developed resources that can be utilised by general practices considering implementation similar models.