Plaza Family Health - Mt. Sheridan Dr Chris Goodall

06/04/2021

8-42am.....power restored 😁

06/04/2021

Good morning..... unfortunately we have a power outage at the Mt Sheridan Shopping Centre . As such our phones will be out until the power is restored. Hopefully this state of affairs is rapidly corrected and your patience much appreciated.

17/01/2021

TROPICAL CYCLONE KIMI.

Plaza Family Health will be open this morning as usual. It would appear that the cyclone is tracking South of Cairns but will likely cause significant rainfall as the day progresses. As such Plaza Family Health will close at 1-00pm this afternoon to ensure our staff get home safely.

As it stands we will be open tomorrow morning at 8-30am for business as usual but this will obviously depend on the weather situation on the day.

We apologise for the inconvenience and any patients with appointments this afternoon will be accommodated within the next day or two.

10/01/2021

Happy New Year to one and all,

As you will know Plaza Family Health is a teaching practice teaching GP Registrars and Medical students the art of General Practice. Dr Yelena has been with us for the past 12 months in this training role and sadly it is now time for her to experience another practice to continue her training. We are very sad that she has to go and I know she will be missed by staff and patients alike. We all wish her the very best.

We are however looking forward to Dr Kaitlin joint us on 18th January 2021 to take over from Dr Yelena. Dr Kaitlin is moving from the Sunshine Coast to join the practice as a Registrar again to learn the subtle art of being a GP. We would like to extend a warm welcome to her and trust that her relocation is smooth and uneventful.

21/12/2020

21/12/2020

The team at Plaza Family Health would like to wish all of our fabulous patients a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.

Our dedicated team will be working up until Wednesday 23rd December and will reopen on Tuesday 29th December. Friday 1st January is also a public holiday so we will be closed on New Years Day.

This year has brought its challenges but I think all of us are grateful for living in this beautiful and safer part of Australia.

Plaza Family Health.

09/11/2020

Some of the Plaza Family Health team enjoying a well deserved night out...

16/06/2020

PLAZA FAMILY HEALTH is 7 years old today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 😃

25/05/2020

PLAZA FAMILY HEALTH has no power this morning like much of the South of Cairns. As such any early appointments may need to be rescheduled as we are 100% dependent on electricity. We cannot access the computer systems so contacting patients with early appointments is impossible. Hopefully all will be restored very soon and apologies for the inconvenience.

17/04/2020

Dr Yelena and Nurse Elise, two of the hard working, brave and dedicated health care professionals working at Plaza Family Health during this era of pandemic COVID 19.

29/03/2020

TELEPHONE AND VIDEO CONSULTATIONS NOW OPEN TO ALL AUSTRALIANS.

Todays announcement expands the Telehealth services to incorporate consultations, mental health services and chronic disease management services to all Australians reducing the need for patients to attend the practice in this current era of Pandemic COVID 19. The government has also provided incentives for GP practices to stay open for those that have to attend in person.

If you require a Telehealth service please call our reception and we will be able to provide a service on the day.

PLEASE SHARE THESE POSTS SO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE ARE AWARE OF THESE CHANGES AND THUS MINIMISING THE RISK OF CONTACT WITH COVID 19 AND ALL THAT ENTAILS.

28/03/2020

TELEPHONE AND TELEHEALTH CONSULTATIONS NOW AVAILABLE AND BULK BILLED TO MEDICARE.

During these difficult times the Plaza Family Health team are trying to minimise exposure of those vulnerable members in our society to COVID-19 and as such the Government has allowed Phone and Telehealth consultations (normal telephone,Skype, Zoom, Facetime etc). These consultations are bulk billed to Medicare. Those who are deemed vulnerable are-

-Aged over 70
-Pregnant
-Children under 12 months
-Anyone with a chronic health condition (essentially most of us)

We anticipate this service will be extended to all in the very near future.

As such if you have any medical concerns, need scripts, test results, referrals etc call our helpful reception staff and they can offer a Telehealth appointment ON THE DAY thus giving you peace of mind.

IT SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED THAT THE INFLUENZA VACCINE IS NOW AVAILABLE AND WE HAVE ORGANISED MINIMAL EXPOSURE CLINICS TO REDUCE RISK.

Call for an appointment.

Stay safe, stay isolated and we look forward to hearing from you.

10/03/2020

Coronavirus or more accurately COVID-19 certainly has landed and the media are having a field day as are the financial markets. It is important to stay calm and be aware this is one of many virus’s that have caused ill health and based on studies in South Korea where everyone was tested even those who were well the true mortality rate or death rate would appear to be 1% or less. This would tend to effect those people who are elderly with inter-current illness such as emphysema or heart disease etc. However it has to be respected and following the guidelines with wearing masks, regular hand washing and avoidance of hand shaking may assist.

In our practice we are set to follow guidelines where patients who have travelled to and from the infected areas who are experiencing symptoms should NOT attend the practice but simply call and self-isolate whilst testing is organised. I note some of the private pathology companies are about to set up stand-alone test centres for the expected increased demand for testing.

Unfortunately there is a shortage of personal protective equipment and masks and these must be worn by the health professional if a case is suspected. As such the GP practice will not be the place to be tested and particularly in our case with a high volume of people in a busy shopping centre it would be counterproductive.

In summary it should be recognised that in most cases COVID-19 is a relatively mild disease and some have no symptoms at all, recovery rates are high. The aim of the current policy is to contain and limit or control the spread of the disease to allow for the finite resources for the more serious hospitalised cases be used efficiently rather than allowing for a sudden large influx and the hospitals being unable to cope.

Toilet paper doesn’t offer immunity to COVID -19 !!

17/02/2020

Are you aged between 45 and 49 years of age, if so you are eligible for a free health assessment to check for risk factors to developing heart problems or the dreaded cancer, as well as checking for diabetes, blood pressure and men's and female health issues. Simply call reception to book an appointment with one of our lovely doctors.

If you are over 75 years of age you too are eligible for a health assessment to monitor your current state of affairs, simply call reception and book an appointment on-

07 4036 3520

With the arrival of our new doctors we will be able to offer on day appointments which is a bit of a novelty at Plaza Family Health so take advantage whilst you can.

09/02/2020

Dr Pahge Marriott will be commencing at Plaza Family Health starting tomorrow ie 11/02/2020. She is an experienced GP who will join Dr Sue, Dr Terri, Dr Yelena and myself.

Hopefully this will allow us to be able to offer appointments on the day to see one of our team.

Appointments can be made on 4036 3520

19/01/2020

Dr Yelena Krasnova studied medicine at University of Queensland in Brisbane and completed her internship in Central Queensland, before moving up to Cairns. For the past 2 years, she has trained predominantly in Emergency at Cairns Hospital, but also got the opportunity to experience working in the rural communities of Far North Queensland. Dr Krasnova’s special interests include Emergency medicine, Child and Women’s health, and Mental Health. Outside of medicine, she enjoys fitness, travel, hiking and exploring the tropics.

13/01/2020

Plaza Family Health is delighted to announce two new female GP's starting at the practice. As such we welcome Dr Yelena Krasnova who will commence practice on 22/01/2020, Dr Krasnova has been working in the Emergency Department at the Cairns Hospital . We also welcome Dr Pahge Marriot who has extensive experience in primary health care in FNQ and will also be starting in the very near future. As such this will result in more on day appointments being available after 22/01/2020 easing the stress of seeing a GP in a timely manner.

23/12/2019

23/12/2019

23/12/2019

Plaza Family Health will close for Christmas at lunch time on Christmas Eve and will re-open again on Monday 30th December. We wish you all a wonderful festive season and thank you for your support over the year.

We all enjoyed a practice Christmas function at Crystalbrook Bailey and I have added a couple of pictures.

17/10/2019

Congratulations Chris

Dr Goodall is very touched by your beautiful comments, and yes Elise you get a pay rise!!!

Plaza Family Health

The Cairns Post recently asked for nominations in search of the best family GP! As voted by you Plaza Family Health - Mt. Sheridan Dr Chris Goodall came in top 2 out of 170 nominations!

It's amazing we can recognize Dr Chris Goodall as one of the highest performing, most clinically astute, customer care doctors in Cairns.

Thank you for your outstanding contributions and for being an
all round great guy.

If you have had the pleasure of meeting with Chris, leave a message below and we'll make sure he gets them.

03/10/2019

Plaza Family Health is delighted to announce that Dr Yelena Krasnova will be joining the team in the New Year. This should ease the burden on appointments and making the wait time to see a doctor of your choice much reduced. Dr Krasnova will join Dr Susan Swanston, Dr Terri Gustafson, Dr Alison Tucker and myself making us once again a full house. Appointments can be made in the usual way by calling our friendly reception staff on 07 4036 3520.

Chris

14/07/2019

Dr Terri Gustafson will be starting at Plaza Family Health on MONDAY 22nd JULY. Appointments can be made by calling our friendly reception team on 07 4036 3520. Being new to the practice there will be appointments available on the day for Dr Gustafson allowing for a timely consultation with a quality GP.

Call now to make an appointment.

07 4036 3520

25/06/2019

We are delighted to advise that we have GP reinforcements arriving in July 2019…..yeah !!.... Dr Rebecca Kerr will be helping out as a locum at Plaza Family Health for a couple of weeks early in the month. Then on 22/07/2019 Dr Terri Gustafson will be joining the team on a full time basis, she has formally been working in Innisfail as a GP experiencing the demands of a rural practice. Dr Alison Tucker will also start on 29/07/2019 on a part time basis, Dr Tucker is again an experienced GP and Medical Educator with the JCU Medical School. We welcome them all to our practice.
We would also like to thank our loyal patients for their patience during the recent lean few months and poverty of available appointments. With the arrival of more doctors this state of affairs will be rectified and all should be returning to normal.
I will however be continuing to tell anyone who will listen about the shortage of GP’s in the South of Cairns and the need for urgent action to try and deal with this situation.
Regards

Chris

27/03/2019

I recently had a whinge in the Cairns Post about an inability to secure permanent GP’s in Cairns which is a sentiment expressed by many local GP’s all struggling to keep up with the demand for consultations. At Plaza Family Health we have many calls for appointments as do other clinics and are in desperate need for new GP’s.
There have also been changes to the after-hours service remuneration making it increasingly difficult to attract GPs to work in after-hours deputising services thus impacting on their ability to provide services and their viability as a business.
As such it comes as no surprise to me to learn that the Emergency Rooms at the Cairns Hospital are swamped with unprecedented numbers of patients as clearly those not able to source primary health care in the community will seek services elsewhere even if it is not an appropriate use of Emergency Services, this makes a mockery of the Government’s push in June 2018 to direct patients that are non-urgent away from the Emergency Department.
I think government incentives including an increase to Medicare rebates are required to make Cairns and surrounding areas more appealing to General Practioner to live and work thus easing the burden on the already constrained Emergency Departments.
Sadly the Federal funding versus State funding arguments will be ongoing with no one actually taking responsibility for this real crisis in health service provision in our region.
Chris

31/01/2019

Welcome to 2019.

As many will know Plaza Family Health is a teaching practice with medical registrars passing through on their training pathways. Dr Heiner and Dr Ahboo have completed their Fellowship and will be moving on to the next step in their careers and we wish them all of the best.

Cairns is struggling with a GP shortage particularly in the Southern suburbs. Recruiting GP’s to these practices is a challenge despite very generous packages and flexibility. We have addressed these concerns with the Hon Warren Entsch, the Hon Bridget Mackenzie and the Health Minister the Hon Greg Hunt, all have shown concern but offered little in the way of practical solutions. A meeting was held at the PHN about these shortages and 40 plus practices attended on a rainy night with genuine concerns looking for solutions. The number of trainee GP’s (Registrars) has dropped significantly in the past few years as General Practice has become less appealing to younger doctors.

Looking at the figures for number of doctors in Cairns it would appear that all is well but it does not give a true picture of distribution and many are part time workers.

As patient’s you will note the increasing difficulty in getting into an appointment with long waiting times or simply an inability to get an appointment. From your perspective this is frustrating and irritating and equally for the GP who has a finite time to see a finite number of patients in a day, burn out is a real and genuine concern.

It is an election year and I would implore you to contact your local member to let them know these difficulties which I think are set to get worse with the reduced recruitment of trainees and an ageing GP population approaching retirement or worse burnout.

Chris

19/12/2018

Happy Christmas to all from the team at Plaza Family Health.

Surgery hours over the festive season are as listed-

Monday 24th December CLOSED
Tuesday 25th December CLOSED
Wednesday 26th December CLOSED
Thursday 27th December OPEN
Friday 28th December OPEN
Saturday 29th December OPEN
Monday 31st December OPEN
Tuesday 1st January CLOSED

It will be normal hours after this.

Plaza Family Health

21/09/2018

Plaza Family Health is delighted to announce that Dr Chris will be returning to work on Tuesday 25th September.
He will be working shorter shifts for the first week or two with the ambition of being back to full duties. Once again your patience and understanding has been much appreciated and we look forward to getting back to normal once again.

03/09/2018

Dr Chris Goodall will be away from Plaza Family Health for a couple of weeks to address a medical condition that has arisen and cannot wait to be treated, (he would like to say he is off on his boat because the weather is perfect...but sadly not the case.) He will be away for about 3 weeks and return to his normal capacity towards the end of September. Your understanding and patience with this is very much appreciated.

PLAZA FAMILY HEALTH

29/06/2018

Plaza Family Health was chosen to launch the PHN campaign launch aimed at reducing the number of relatively trivial attendances in the Emergency Department at Cairns Hospital, 60% of visits have been deemed not appropriate and better seen by GP's, After Hours Doctors or simply offered advise by 13 Health, Pharmacists or similar. Check out the website www.sickafterhours.com.au for more information on this important initiative.

Call 13 Health to help take the worry out of health concerns. You can phone 24/7 and qualified staff will give you advice on who to talk to and how quickly you should do it. The advice is confidential, qualified, and supportive.