High intensity nursing on the Gold Coast is delivered at home for participants with tracheostomies, ventilators, feeding tubes, complex bowel care, seizures and other clinical needs. This guide explains what the service involves locally and how discharge from Gold Coast hospitals works.
A participant on the Gold Coast who needs tracheostomy suctioning, PEG feeds, a bowel program or emergency seizure medication every day is not looking for ordinary support work. They need high intensity nursing: registered nurses who deliver the clinical care and train the support workers who share it, under a plan agreed with the hospital team. MediHealth Connect provides high intensity supports on the Gold Coast, and this guide explains how it works from Coomera to Tugun.
The NDIS classes certain personal care as high intensity daily personal activities because a mistake can cause serious harm. The NDIS Commission's High Intensity Support Skills Descriptors list the procedures: complex bowel care, enteral feeding, severe dysphagia, tracheostomy management, ventilation, urinary catheter management, subcutaneous injections, complex wound care, diabetes management and seizure management. A provider must be registered for the group, and every worker performing these tasks must meet the descriptor and be trained and signed off on the specific participant by a registered nurse.
A registered nurse assesses the participant, writes the care plan with the treating team and keeps clinical responsibility. Support workers on the roster are trained on that participant's equipment and routine, observed, signed off and reassessed on a schedule; the nurse is reachable during shifts and takes over direct care when the participant's condition changes. Nurse-only tasks, such as tracheostomy tube changes, catheter changes and ventilator adjustments, are marked in the plan. Because the coast is long, we roster nurses and workers from the northern, central and southern Gold Coast separately.
Most high intensity participants come to community care after an admission to Gold Coast University Hospital at Southport or Robina Hospital, both part of Gold Coast Health. The safest discharges are the ones where the community provider is involved before the date is set: joining the discharge planning meeting where the hospital allows, collecting the care plan, prescriptions and equipment list, training staff on the ward with the hospital team and arranging consumables. After discharge, the GP receives the care plan and the hospital specialists receive the reports they request.
High intensity daily personal activities are funded from the Core budget at the high intensity price limits, and the nursing from Core as a disability-related health support. The NDIA needs a specialist or hospital report that names the procedures, their frequency and the risks of untrained delivery. Our nurses write those reports, and a Gold Coast support coordinator can help you request a review or variation.
Ask to see the registration for high intensity daily personal activities. Ask how support workers are trained and reassessed, and by whom. Ask where the nurses and workers are based, because a roster that depends on staff driving from Brisbane will fail at the first sick call. Ask what overnight and 24-hour cover the provider can actually staff in your suburb, and expect an honest answer rather than a promise.
Routine suctioning and stoma care can be delegated to a support worker trained and signed off by a registered nurse on the specific participant, with an agreed emergency plan. Tube changes and clinical decisions stay with the nurse.
We can build 24-hour rosters where the plan funds them, using nurses and trained support workers. Whether we can commit depends on the procedures and staffing in your part of the coast, which we confirm before any agreement.
It is community nursing for higher-risk procedures, with additional registration, training and supervision requirements. Our Gold Coast community nursing page covers the broader service.
MediHealth Connect provides community nursing across South East Queensland.