Discover the QUT Health Clinics Difference transcript

Professor Ross Young – Executive Dean (Faculty of Health):

The purpose of the Health Clinics is twofold; as a university for the real world it’s vital that we extend beyond the university borders and to make sure that what we’re doing has relevance for those around our campuses. Here at the QUT Health Clinics in Kelvin Grove, we’re able to offer a whole range of services to members of the general public who can be self-referred, referred through their general practitioner or a number of different health practitioners. It’s a really vital part of the training experience of our students and we’re very proud to be offering them such a high quality clinical training environment that also gives back to those in need.

We have several clinics, we have an Optometry Clinic, Podiatry, Nutrition and Dietetics, Exercise Physiology and a Psychology and Counselling Clinic. They often work together around the management of particular issues. Say for example you’ve got diabetes, you need to manage your diet more effectively, there may be issues with your feet, and there might be stressors you’re experiencing that our psychologist can help you deal with more effectively. Having the various clinics work together to make sure that we’re really doing the best in terms of managing a condition like diabetes is a unique and important aspect of our work.

Robbie Mullins – Director (Exercise Physiology and Nutrition and Dietetics Clinics):

The QUT Health Clinics – Exercise Physiology Clinic provides an array of exercise prescription and programming service for people with or at risk of chronic and complex medical conditions.

Dr Shelley Hopkins – Clinic Coordinator (Optometry Clinic):

Our Optometry Clinic will provide eye examinations for the general public and the patients are seen either in our student clinic where fourth and fifth year optometry students perform the eye tests under supervision.

Carmel – Patient (Exercise Physiology Clinic):

I’ve probably had about five or six students with me over the time and they’re all so really nice and so caring. They seem to appreciate the fact that I’m a patient, that that’s what they would be dealing with when they go out from the university. That it’s not just reading in books. They seem to like they can apply what they’ve learnt which is really good.

Hannah Maher – Student (Optometry Clinic):

In the clinic we have an excellent array of equipment that is perhaps even better than some of the equipment we’ll have access to when we are practicing. So it’s really nice to be able to work in an environment with state-of-the-art equipment that we can use to help diagnose and manage patients.

Will Chelepy – Student (Optometry Clinic):

And even not just the skills themselves, even some of the thoughts we’re taught here. In optometry I guess you’re always learning. Here we are always being pushed to learn, to read up, to know what’s happening, that kind of thing. That’s something we can take, that continuing development and education. Those kinds of ideas.

Professor Ross Young – Executive Dean (Faculty of Health):

We provide a significant service here with 30,000 occasions of service per year and that’s within the Health Clinics here in Kelvin Grove. But we also offer 2,000 occasions of service in several community settings around Brisbane so we can take our services directly to those in need in their own communities.

We know the Health Clinics has a really strong reputation. We collect regular data from the patients who come here to get feedback on what our strengths are and how we can improve our clinical services in future. We also know from the feedback we get from referring doctors and other health professions about the high quality of service we provide and one that makes a real difference in the lives of our patients.

For many of these patients accessing care elsewhere is expensive and difficult but here we provide a really good value service that’s easy to access and provides coordinated care.