Royal North Shore Hospital New Emergency Department Discharge Template
Any feedback on the new template would be welcome. Please use the QR code below to provide direct feedback to the emergency department team. https://forms.office.com/r/0aybRGYCU6
Royal North Shore Hospital emergency department started using a new discharge summary template earlier this year. This is in response to feedback, particularly from GPs, that there were common issues with discharge summaries around readability and finding relevant information. A discharge summary template has been designed to give staff a framework to ensure communication is accurate, succinct and useful to the reader. Our aim is for this to make discharges easy to read and time- saving for GPs. This will also ensure that discharges are consistent so information can be readily found.
General Practices Eligible to Apply for Chronic Wound Consumables Scheme from May 2025
The Chronic Wound Consumables Scheme (CWCS) was announced in the 2023-2024 Federal Budget with the aim of improving the management of patients living with chronic wounds. From May 2025 the CWCS will allow GPs (alongside nurses, podiatrists and Aboriginal health practitioners) to order approved dressings, bandages and related supplies for eligible patients via an online portal, with the commonwealth covering the full cost. To use the portal you will need to complete a short training program being developed by Monash University (available from March 2025). The CWCS is limited to people with diabetes who have a chronic wounds and are ≥65 years old (or ≥50 years for First Nations patients) and does not apply to wounds already treated in hospitals, state-run community services, the NDIS or DVA programs. In practice, the CWCS gives GPs a funded, streamlined pathway to supply evidence- based consumables and removes the out-of-pocket costs that often cause patients to delay care. A stepped approach to managing chronic wounds should still be undertaken with timely escalation to appropriate hospital outpatient services when wounds stagnate or don’t heal as expected.
In the case of chronic foot wounds, it is not only the wound management plan and consumables used that need to be optimised. Multidisciplinary review, vascular and neurological foot assessment, appropriate offloading, pressure relief strategies, footwear prescription and escalation to medical specialty teams remain the most effective way to achieve the best outcomes for our patients. High risk foot services play a key role in the coordination and facilitation of complex care planning for patients with hard to heal wounds. If you are concerned about prolonged wound healing time for patients with chronic wounds under your care, place an eReferral via HealthLink or contact the below services directly to discuss your case: The Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) High Risk Foot Service 02 9463 1242 NSLHD-RNSH-HighRiskFoot@health.nsw.gov.au Hornsby Hospital High Risk Foot Service 02 9485 6777 NSLHD-HKH-PodiatryReferrals@health.nsw. gov.au
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GPLink | June 2025
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