Wound care on the Gold Coast for NDIS participants, delivered at home by MediHealth Connect registered nurses. From Coomera to Tugun, our wound care nurses manage pressure injuries, post-operative wounds, leg ulcers and wounds that refuse to heal, with measurement at every visit and your GP kept informed.
A wound that would be minor for most people can be a serious problem for someone with reduced mobility, thin skin, diabetes or a neurological condition. It heals slowly, it is easy to miss until it is infected, and on the Gold Coast it can mean a trip to Gold Coast University Hospital or Robina Hospital that nobody wanted.
Home wound care changes that. A registered nurse visits you, whether you live in a unit at Southport, a house in Nerang or supported accommodation in Robina, and takes responsibility for the wound from assessment to healing. Visits are as frequent as the wound requires, the wound is measured and photographed each time, and the results go to your GP. Our Gold Coast wound care nursing is designed for people whose wounds are connected to their disability and who need consistency more than anything else.
The wound care services we provide on the Gold Coast cover the full range seen in NDIS participants.
We stage and measure the injury, choose dressings that manage exudate and protect the wound bed, arrange pressure-relieving cushions and mattresses, and set up a repositioning routine with your carers.
When you come home from surgery at Gold Coast University Hospital, Robina or a private hospital, we continue the surgeon's dressing plan, monitor for infection and dehiscence and report back before your follow-up.
Venous, arterial and diabetic wounds respond to the right product, the right compression where indicated and close attention to circulation and glucose. Regular nursing visits are what keep these wounds moving toward closure.
Wounds that have stalled, wounds on negative pressure therapy, skin tears and burns. We coordinate specialist input through your GP and carry out the specialist's recommendations at home.
Every wound our Gold Coast nurses treat starts with a full assessment: the wound itself, the skin around it, signs of infection, pain, and the things that slow healing such as nutrition, circulation, diabetes and medications. Measurements and photographs, with your consent, are taken at the first visit and at every visit after.
The nurse then writes a dressing plan that names the products, the change frequency, what carers can safely do between visits and the warning signs that need a phone call. Progress is judged against the measurements, and the plan changes when the wound does. Your GP gets regular updates, and if the wound stalls or looks infected, the GP hears about it that day. Where a Gold Coast Health wound clinic is also involved, we align our treatment with theirs.
Wound treatment nurses on the Gold Coast spend time teaching as well as dressing. Carers who can keep a dressing dry, recognise infection early and reposition properly make the difference between a wound that heals and one that keeps reopening.
Pressure injury care on the Gold Coast goes hand in hand with prevention. For participants who use a wheelchair or spend long periods lying down, these steps are part of every nursing visit.
Our wound care nurses visit participants across the City of Gold Coast, including the hinterland. Because the coast is long, we roster nurses from the northern, central and southern Gold Coast separately so that travel does not eat into visit times.
North: Coomera, Pimpama, Ormeau, Helensvale, Oxenford
Central: Southport, Surfers Paradise, Ashmore, Nerang, Labrador
South: Burleigh Heads, Palm Beach, Robina, Varsity Lakes, Tugun
Hinterland: Tamborine Mountain, Canungra
Wound care sits within our community nursing service on the Gold Coast. Participants with wounds alongside other complex needs may be better served by our Gold Coast high intensity supports. Our article on what a nurse does during home wound care describes a typical visit, and the wound care overview covers the service across South East Queensland.
NDIS wound care on the Gold Coast is usually funded from Core as a disability-related health support when the wound is related to your disability, with dressings and consumables claimed the same way. Wound care for an unrelated acute health issue, such as a hospital dressing clinic after an operation, is normally a Medicare or hospital matter. Where both apply, we help you keep the two separate.
If your plan does not yet include wound care, your GP or specialist can supply the evidence, our nurses can prepare the clinical report and a Gold Coast support coordinator can help you request a review or variation.
As often as the wound needs. Fresh or infected wounds can need daily or second-daily changes, while stable chronic wounds might be seen once or twice a week. The nurse decides the frequency at the first assessment, writes it into your plan and changes it as the wound progresses.
In most cases, yes. When wound care is funded in your plan as a disability-related health support, the dressings and consumables are claimed from Core with the nursing. If the wound is unrelated to your disability, Medicare or the hospital may cover it instead, and we tell you which applies before anything is ordered.
Yes. Pressure injuries are a core part of our Gold Coast wound care nursing. We stage and measure the injury, select dressings, manage moisture and infection, arrange pressure-relieving equipment and train your carers in repositioning and skin checks so the injury heals and stays healed.
Yes. We send your GP progress notes with measurements and, with your consent, photographs, and we contact the GP immediately if the wound deteriorates or stops improving so that a review, swab or specialist referral can be arranged.
We change the approach. That might mean different dressing products, a review of nutrition, circulation, diabetes control or medications, a swab to check for infection, or a referral through your GP to a wound specialist or vascular service. Regular measurement means a stalled wound is picked up within a couple of visits.