Welcome to the Don Medical Clinic Newsletter for June 2020

1. COVID Pandemic

The number of new reported cases in Tasmania has remained at zero for 36 days, which is great news as we return to normal. The clinic is now doing face to face appointments with safe distancing and hygiene protocols in place. Telehealth is still available when required. Appointments costs are back to normal practice policy, if you are unsure of the cost of your appointment then please speak to reception staff or email your query. Telehealth consultations may incur a fee and will not be assumed to be billed to Medicare ( bulk bill )

2. Flu Clinics 2020

We would like to thank the RSL for the use of their rooms to conduct our flu clinics and the feedback from the patient survey was positive. The Flu Season is always a very stressful time for the practice as we continue to try to meet daily needs alongside the additional stress of rolling out additional and accessible flu clinics. The offsite option this year provided great flow and safe delivery of immunisations during the COVID Pandemic. There were many great tools that were created this year for our Flu Clinic Toolkit that we will take into 2021.

3. Mens Health Week 2020

Last week was Mens Health Weeks. Dr Mafada and our medical student Emma Hicks have created a great informative video to remind us how important it is for men young and old to manage not only their physical health also their mental health :

(Click on Image to see video )

4. Pain Management / Opiate Prescriptions June 2020 onwards

From the first of June 2020 new restricitons have been implemented to encourage healthy prescribing and dispensing of opiate based medications. These are government regulations that doctors will be required to abide by in the context of the clinical situation. The reasons for this is that every day in Australia, nearly 150 hospitalisations and 14 emergency department admissions involve issues relating to opioid use, and three people die from the harm that results. With this in mind Don Medical Clinic will be further reviewing and refining the management of chronic non cancer pain and opiate precriptions. Please see our webpage :

( Click on image to go to webpage )

5. Youth Health at Don Medical Clinic

Unfortunately due to increasing demands and COVID risks, the on-campus clinic is closed for the remainder of term 2 and possibly term 3. However Don Medical Clinic is passionate about providing confidential , accessible and affordable care to young people in our community. For more information please go the website:

( Click on image to go to webpage )

6. Chronic Disease - Keep Well Program

We noticed during the COVID pandemic when most of our chronic disease management was put on hold, that now 3 months later the health care of some of our most vulnerable patients has remained quite stable. Don Medical Clinic has strongly promoted early intervention and prevention to manage and stablise chronic health conditions. We feel that the wellness of many of our patients during COVID is a sign that our processes and assertive follow up, reminders and follow up appts and our team-based approach played a large part in keepin people well in the long term. We will be encouraging those patients with chronic disease to consider signing up to our Keep Well Clinic . For more information:

( Click on image to go to webpage )

Once again we thank our patient community for their support as we continue to offer affordable quality team-based heatlh care to you and your families.

The Don Medical Clinic Team.