What are Fractures?
Fractures are breaks of the bones that usually result from some sort of fall or accident where more force is applied to a bone than it can handle and the bone fails (snaps, cracks, fractures, breaks – these words all mean the same thing!). Some do best when treated with pain relief and splinting until they heal naturally, whereas other fractures have a better outcome if put back together with surgery.
Does Dr Lambers Treat Fractures?
Yes, Dr Lambers treats fractures and acute soft tissue injuries through his role at Northeast Health Wangaratta on the on-call Trauma Roster along with the other consultants in the department. As a department there is 24-7 surgeon cover for the community’s orthopaedic injuries.
Patients in the Northeast Health Wangaratta catchment area with fractures are managed by GP’s where appropriate, and if required they are referred to either the Northeast Health Wangaratta Emergency Department or directly to the Northeast Health Wangaratta Fracture clinic.
Fractures are not managed in the surgeon’s private consulting rooms but in the fracture clinic and theatres at Northeast Health Wangaratta where there are plastering staff, additional doctors to manage the volume of patients, rapid access to imaging such as X-ray or CT and access to operating theatres with live X-ray to fix the fracture if required. There is no fee for the appointments or surgery as it is part of the public healthcare system as long as you have a medicare card.
Information for GP’s Treating Fractures
Non-urgent referrals can be faxed to the fracture clinic via their contact details found here and should include the patient’s address, date of birth, 2 contact numbers including a mobile phone and details of the injury (diagnosis, date of injury, mechanism of injury), treatment already applied and any relevant medical history for the patient. It must also include the imaging report and imaging provider name so that these can be accessed and viewed by our staff. The referrals are then triaged by the orthopaedic doctors and an appointment is then made. It is not possible to choose which surgeon will treat a particular injury as it is a rotating roster. Guidelines around what can and cannot be seen in this clinic are found here.
The hospital has an on-call orthopaedic doctor called a registrar or resident who is available to discuss referrals during the day if you aren’t sure if surgery, fracture clinic (or nothing!) is required. They are also available overnight for emergencies only. If you are not sure of the significance of the injury it is always better to call, as some outpatient injuries require early treatment in theatre and fracture clinic appointments can take a bit of time to be booked from time of referral. There are also some injuries that don’t require hospital level treatment at all, and you may be given advice for continued community care for the patient.
