About the Immigrant Health Service
The Immigrant health service is part of the Department of General Medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital. The Immigrant health clinic is run at the green desk outpatients on Monday afternoon between 1:30-5:30 pm. It provides a multidisciplinary assessment service for recently arrived children of a refugee background. This includes medical and dental assessment, immunisations, Mantoux testing and administration of Vitamin D as needed. Pathology, radiology and pharmacy services are available onsite. The Immigrant health clinic utilises the expertise of RCH interpreter service and runs alongside the infectious diseases, travel medicine and immunisation clinics. There is also a concurrent gastroenterology clinic. There are close links between all these services and also links to primary health care providers and community organisations working in refugee health.
Typically families are seen for 2 visits initially and will be referred for management of ongoing health issues if needed. All children within a family are seen at the same visit to maximise efficiency, in addition every attempt is made to minimise trips to the hospital by combining appointments for other services (such as eye review and audiology) with clinic times. A detailed summary is provided for the referring doctor with an ongoing plan for management, families receive a copy of this letter.
Referrals
The clinic coordinator is Helen Milton. She can be contacted through RCH switchboard on 9345 5522 or email helen.milton@rch.org.au. Referrals should be clearly marked to Immigrant health clinic and can be sent through the normal outpatient bookings process.