WA Health’s campaign continues to remind Western Australians to consider alternative health care options to Emergency Departments (EDs) for minor injury or illness.
During the winter months EDs experience a high level of people attending hospital.
In 2015, abdominal pain, ankle sprain/strain were among the top 10 diagnosis at ED attendances that could have been addressed by other health services.
About 130,000 ED visits per year could be better serviced by other health services such as GPs, healthdirect or appropriate self-assessment.
While we do not want to stop people who have an urgent or life-threatening condition going to an ED, we do want to reduce the number of people visiting with non-urgent issues.
EDs are not always the best place to be treated or recuperate from an illness and we need to ensure they remain free for emergencies.
The campaign complements current information available on HealthyWA (external site), including a symptom checker tool where people can enter their symptoms and get trusted advice on what to do next.
In the next few months the campaign will run on television, digital, social and outdoor media.