Ms Allyson Chapple1, Ms Jacquie Halliday
1Nurse Practitioner Locum Solutions, Limestone Coast Local Health Network, Australia
Biography:
Allyson is a Nurse Practitioner with Emergency specialty and 20 years experience in acute care. She has a Bachelor of Nursing (honours), Master of Clinical Nursing (Emergency), Master of Nurse Practitioner (Emergency) all gained at Flinders University. The current role earned the team a South Australian Premiers Award for innovation in Teams in 2025.
Abstract:
In 2023 SA Health acquired a small private hospital in regional SA, deemed unsustainable from a clinical and financial perspective. With the inability to recruit and retain a doctor, an alternative health provision trial was implemented with the establishment of an Urgent Care to meet the health needs of community members. The pioneering model of care for SA involved Nurse Practitioner and Community Paramedic clinicians collaboratively providing the care and successfully mitigated community members’ concern of losing their hospital. The establishment of services covered daily healthcare provision and offered an on-call each night for emergencies. The model resulted in regained trust from the community members and has re-established their health safety.
Intimate knowledge of the SA Health system has assisted with safe navigation of high-acuity patients requiring timely transfers. Increase use of the service has steadily grown from an average of 30 presentations per month in 2023 to 165 per month in 2025, providing essential care. Utilisation of nurse practitioner and community paramedic for on-call has also attracted a regular General Practitioner back into Keith, visiting 3 days per week for primary care services. Adoption of this model in other small towns could provide positive impacts on remote healthcare delivery.