Ensuring healthcare access in a natural disaster

Ensuring healthcare access in a natural disaster

Young Australian of the Year and Founder of Street Side Medics, Dr Daniel Nour, hit the streets of Lismore with his team of volunteers to provide medical care to flood-affected victims.

When Street Side Medics heard that people in Lismore were unable to see their GPs, and many residents were essentially homeless after losing their homes in the floods, Dr Daniel Nour, Founder of Street Side Medics, made a phone call to the CEO of the North Coast Primary Healthcare Network (PHN) to see if they could help.

Street Side Medics is a not-for-profit mobile medical centre providing primary healthcare for the vulnerable and homelessness in Sydney. According to Dr Nour, North Coast PHN CEO, Julie Sturgess was relieved to receive the offer, and the team quickly put together a plan to send a van north.

Before heading to Lismore, Dr Nour had to ensure the van was fully equipped with the appropriate consumables and equipment for the circumstances they were about to face. Once all packed and the van fully insured for a flood-affected area, Dr Nour and the team of volunteers took off to help the flood affected area.

Many Lismore GPs used the Street Side Medics van as a medical hub to provide care to their patients. Whilst being able to facilitate the provision of ongoing care was beneficial to patients, access to the van also allowed GPs to keep working, which alleviated some of the financial stress associated with losing their practices. 

“We provided the service free of charge with no expectation of any financial reimbursement, and any of the patients seen in the van were billed by the local providers so they were able to continue generating revenue,” Dr Nour said. 

Street Side Medics also visited nearby regional towns, such as Coraki, to provide the same medical care and assistance. At the time of writing, Dr Nour and the van were still in Northern NSW; however, he anticipated they would return to Sydney once the situation was stable.

“The reception of the van up north has been incredible. Everyone is just grateful, both on social media and in-person. I think they were just humbled to know that this kind of service is there for them. It was a very proud moment for us,” Dr Nour said.

Dr Nour indicated Street Side Medics will be ready to assist in the event of another natural disaster.

“The message has always been ‘access to healthcare’ and in a situation where whether it be a natural disaster or being socially disadvantaged, we want to try and breach that,” Dr Nour said.

“I don’t think Street Side Medics are the heroes here, I think we were a piece of the puzzle, and the heroes are the local community members that stood up and were willing to roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty in tough circumstances.” 

As a volunteer-run organisation, donations can go quite a long way. Street Side Medics are looking at expanding their services. If you would like to find out how you can donate to Street Side Medics, including donating your time as a volunteer, please go to their website. www.streetsidemedics.com.au.