The first stand-alone nurse-practitioner led clinic will be opening next month in Queensland’s Chermside Westfield shopping centre. The clinic will employ 10 nurse practitioners and four midwives in the first-of-its-kind, stand-alone primary healthcare clinic. 

The services provided by the SmartClinics facility include treatments for colds and flus, vaccinations, wound care, blood tests, repeat prescriptions and medical certificates, health checks, fracture assessment, and pregnancy check-ups.

The SmartClinic will have the support of a GP, but will be led by nurse practitioner Julie Farrelly. Ms. Farrelly has extensive academic and practical nursing experience, including a Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Master's Degree. She also worked in a busy city ED as a nurse practitioner candidate and was endorsed as a nurse practitioner in 2007.

"There were many times as the sole registered nurse on duty, when I was required to assess and begin treatment for ill patients or labouring mums and then relay my findings to a GP, who was often many kilometres away," says Mr. Farrelly. "I wanted to ensure that my advanced assessment skills were accurate and that any treatments I commenced were based on current evidence… Nurse practitioners provide holistic care, right from greeting them [patients] at the door through to examining, diagnosing, treating, referring when necessary and discharging them home or to specialist treatment."

Plans are already underway to open a second SmartClinic in southeast Queensland.