The Central heart of Australia
The Flynn Drive Renal Unit (attached to the Alice Springs Community Health Centre) is a 26 station facility using the latest renal technologies including OCM, BVM, BTM and Access Flow Studies as standard monitoring tools. Staff at the Flynn Drive satellite unit coordinate care for patients within the Central Australian region.
The majority of patients are Aboriginal (98%) and almost all have relocated from remote areas of Central Australia to access treatment in Alice Springs.
Interested in speaking an aboriginal language? Then Alice Springs is definitely the place for you.
The facility caters for patients with different dependency levels and acuity, therefore no dialysis treatment is ever the same. Prescriptions and care are individualised to patient needs. The service supports haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, pre and post transplantation care and offers pre-dialysis care and education. Specialist nursing staff are employed across all these areas. We also have an Access and Anaemia Coordinator.
This year will see the facility undergo redevelopment, sadly the demand for renal services have meant we have well and truly outgrown our present facility. We have 126 patients on haemodialysis. Redevelopment will include the creation of a dedicated Self Care Training area.
Staffing in the unit includes 33 Nurses, 2 Administration Officers, 7 Patient Care Assistants, 1 Aboriginal health worker, 1 Social worker, 2 Aboriginal liaison officers and a Dietitian.
The Alice Springs Nephrology team consists of 2 Nephrologists, 2 Renal Registrars and 1 RMO.
Alice Springs Hospital (3kms from the Flynn Drive unit) incorporates a 2-station dialysis area; this will be redeveloped this year at a cost of 1 million dollars to an 8-station facility to enable access to dialysis for all acutely ill in-patients. Staff from the satellite site coordinate inpatient dialysis within the hospital.
As you can see the Alice Springs service is ever expanding and with so many new patients each year commencing RRT, our staffing needs also continue to grow.
... so come on ... come for a short time and stay for a life-time, like so many of us have.