Comments Off on Dr Thomas Challenger – Doctors on Call Medcall

By admin, June 26, 2013 3:06 pm

Record demand for house doctors

FIRST ON 7: On-call doctors are gearing up for flu season, which is about to strike Queensland. Kylie Hodge reports.

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On-call doctors are gearing up for the flu season about to strike Queensland.

There’s record demand for free GPs who visit patients in their own homes at night, on weekends, and holidays.

Every night hundreds of Gold Coast patients have MedCall doctors come to them for free.

DrTom Challenger started the service alone 13 years ago. He now employs 33 other GPs.

“My grandfather was in a nursing home and he was pretty ill and we couldn’t get a doctor out late at night and he ended up dying as a result,” Dr Challenger said.

In Brisbane, Family Care Friendly Medical Services answers calls from across the south east and interstate.

“We’ve got some very bad influenzas down south – some very sick children, and also some of the influenzas are impacting on elder members of the community,” spokesperson Stuart Tait said.

Every patient the doctors treat, is one fewer waiting in the emergency departments.

“They significantly assist with reducing the number of presentations to the emergency departments.” Dr Christian Rowan from AMAQ said.

“One day Telstra disconnected our phones in the office and all the hospitals on the Gold Coast went on bypass with the load of the patients we weren’t seeing.”

But the AMAQ says recent changes to federal funding for GPs are making it more difficult for practices to provide doctors on call.

“The federal government has made after hours viability more difficult,” Dr Rowan said.

Gold Coast:
Medcall, 55 311 224
Free, bulk-billing on-call GP service

Mon-Fri 6pm-8am, Saturdays from noon, All day Sundays & public holidays

Comments Off on Dr Tom Challenger honoured by White Pages

By admin, June 20, 2013 12:35 pm

Dr Tom Challenger honoured by White Pages

June 17, 2013

A commitment to improving the health of his region has landed Gold Coast general practitioner Dr Tom Challenger the cover of this year’s Gold Coast White Pages®.

Dr Challenger is recognised under the theme, Keeping Our Communities Healthy, as founder of Medcall, a medical service that provides after-hours house calls to more than 300 Gold Coast residents per night.

In 2000, after his grandfather died late at night, Dr Challenger established Medcall, a bulk-billing after-hours medical service that makes house calls. Volunteering his services, Dr Challenger would drive up and down the Gold Coast, supported by just one other doctor, to attend to people in need for hours on end.

Since its inception, Dr Challenger has grown Medcall into a key community service helping to take the strain off local hospitals and ambulances. Now with 33 doctors, Medcall provides medical attention to approximately 300 people each night who live between Beenleigh and Coolangatta.

When not on-call himself, Dr Challenger is working on plans to roll out similar services in other cities.

With Medcall operating 365 days of the year, Dr Challenger is a dedicated GP giving locals lifesaving care when they need it.

“On a personal level I know how crucial after-hours medical service is, so providing such important care to homes all over the Gold Coast is very rewarding. Being selected for the White Pages cover for something I’m so passionate about is quite humbling,” Dr Challenger said.