Wound care in the Redlands and on the bay islands for NDIS participants, at home, by MediHealth Connect registered nurses. Pressure injuries, surgical wounds, leg ulcers and complex wounds, managed with proper assessment, measured at every visit and reported to your GP until they heal.
On the Redlands mainland, getting to Redland Hospital in Cleveland for a dressing is usually manageable. On Macleay, Russell, Coochiemudlo or North Stradbroke Island it is a ferry, a bus and most of a day, which is why island participants so often go without proper wound care until a wound becomes an emergency.
Home wound care from a registered nurse removes the journey. Our Redlands wound care nurses assess the wound where you live, put a dressing plan in place and visit as often as the wound needs, on the mainland and on the islands. The wound is measured and photographed at every visit and your GP receives the progress. For a participant whose wound is a consequence of their disability, steady, skilled attention like this is what gets it closed.
Our wound care services in the Redlands cover the wounds NDIS participants most often need managed.
Sacral and heel injuries in wheelchair users and people who are largely bed-bound. Staged, measured, dressed for the stage of the injury, and paired with equipment and carer coaching so the same spot does not break down again.
Wounds after an operation at Redland Hospital or in Brisbane. We take over the surgeon's instructions once you are home, look for infection and separation, and let the surgical team know how things are going before your review.
Ulcers driven by poor venous return, arterial disease or diabetes. Slow to heal at the best of times, and slower again if visits are missed, so we hold the schedule even when the schedule involves a ferry.
Wounds that have stopped improving, wounds under negative pressure therapy, skin tears on fragile skin and burns. Specialist opinions are arranged through your GP and carried out by us at home.
A Redlands wound treatment nurse asks three questions at the first visit. What kind of wound is this? Why is it not healing on its own? What is the plan? The answers come from examining the wound and the skin around it, checking for infection, and talking through pain, diet, circulation, blood sugar and medicines. The wound is measured and, with your agreement, photographed so there is a baseline.
The plan that follows is written down and left with you: the dressing products, how often they are changed, what a carer may do between visits and the signs that mean somebody should ring us. Every subsequent visit repeats the measurement, so a wound that is getting smaller is visibly getting smaller, and a wound that is not is obvious within a couple of visits. Progress notes go to your GP on a regular cycle. A wound that is going backwards is reported the day it is noticed.
Island participants get one extra thing: more time spent teaching whoever is with them day to day. When the nurse cannot be there tomorrow, the carer who can keep a dressing dry and recognise the first signs of infection is part of the clinical team, and we treat them that way.
Most pressure injuries we treat in the Redlands could have been avoided, which is why prevention is written into every wound care plan for participants who use a wheelchair or spend most of the day in bed. The nurse checks heels, sacrum, hips and elbows at every visit, looks under braces and seating, and works out a turning and pressure-relief routine that the household can genuinely keep up. Where a pressure mattress, cushion or heel protector is needed, the nurse writes the evidence for the NDIA and, for island homes, plans how the equipment will be delivered. Damp skin and poor nutrition are addressed directly, because between them they explain most of the injuries we see.
Our wound care nurses visit participants across Redland City, on the mainland and on the Southern Moreton Bay Islands and North Stradbroke Island. Island visits are planned around the ferry timetable so that dressing changes happen on schedule.
Cleveland and north: Cleveland, Ormiston, Wellington Point, Birkdale, Alexandra Hills
Central and south: Capalaba, Thornlands, Victoria Point, Redland Bay, Mount Cotton
Bay Islands: North Stradbroke Island (Dunwich), Coochiemudlo, Macleay, Russell
West: Sheldon, Thorneside
Wound care is provided through our community nursing service in the Redlands. Where a wound is part of complex care, our Redlands high intensity supports may be the better fit. Our article on what your nurse does during wound care at home describes a typical visit, and the wound care overview covers South East Queensland.
Two funding systems can pay for wound care, and Redlands participants often touch both. The NDIS pays, from your Core budget, for nursing and consumables when the wound is a consequence of your disability: a pressure injury from immobility, for instance, or a wound that will not heal because of a neurological condition. Medicare and Queensland Health pay for wound care that belongs to an acute health episode, such as the outpatient clinic after an operation. When a wound moves from one category to the other, we tell you and your plan manager so the right budget is charged.
If your plan has no wound care in it, the path is evidence from your GP or specialist, a clinical report from our nurse and a request for a review or variation, which a Redlands support coordinator can help you put together.
Anywhere from daily to weekly, set by the wound rather than by a fixed roster. A raw surgical wound or an infected wound is seen often; a stable ulcer under a long-wear dressing may only need a nurse once or twice a week. For island participants the nurse also builds the ferry timetable into the plan so that no change is missed.
When the wound is related to your disability and wound care is funded in your plan, the dressings are claimed from your Core budget along with the nursing visits. If the wound belongs to an unrelated health episode, Medicare or the hospital pays for it. We work out which applies with you before any products are ordered.
Yes, including on the bay islands. The nurse stages and measures the injury, chooses the dressing, controls moisture and infection, arranges pressure-relieving equipment and coaches your carers in turning and skin checks so the injury heals and does not come back.
Every wound has a GP report cycle written into its plan, and the reports include measurements and photographs where you have consented. Anything that looks like deterioration is phoned through the same day so the GP can arrange a swab, a review or a specialist referral without delay.
A wound that has not changed size over a few visits triggers a rethink: different products, a closer look at diet, circulation, blood sugar and medicines, a swab if infection is suspected, or a specialist referral through your GP. Because every visit is measured, the rethink happens early rather than after months of the same dressing.