New Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic at Monash Children’s
A new fortnightly Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic will be held by Monash Children's. Clinic 223C funded by the Department of Health through the Ambulatory Classification and Funding System (VACS) will be held on alternate Monday mornings from June 7 in Clinic A at Monash Medical Centre Clayton.The clinic will provide consultative services for referrals from within Southern Health and from external practitioners.
The Clinic is staffed by four consultants (one currently on maternity leave) and a registrar. There are plans to employ an immunisation nurse within the next month.
Although some of the services have previously been available from the General Paediatric Clinics, the introduction of a dedicated infectious diseases clinic offers Monash Children’s a chance to improve the level of the service available and to reduce waiting times for this specialty advice.
The Clinic will provide a focus for a range of issues including the long term follow-up of children with complicated infections including HIV and TB, infectious diseases in immigrant children, acute travel related infections and during the convalescent phase of illness following discharge from the wards.
In addition, due to the increase in capacity allowed by the Clinic, we can also assess infants at risk of acquiring infections at birth, such as Hepatitis B and C, and to provide consultative services to other departments.
The Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic will maintain close links with the Refugee Clinic at Dandenong and with the Adult Infectious Diseases service, particularly the TB Clinic.
At this stage, the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic will not operate as a travel advisory service for healthy children but consultants will be happy to discuss specific needs for patients with complex underlying conditions.