Frankston is the biggest city in Melbourne, Victoria, and is on the seaside of Port Phillip Bay, 41 km southeast of Melbourne CBD.69% of, Frankston residents are born in Australia, while 12.5% of them are migrants from overseas. The majority of these people are Catholics while the rests are protestants and others, nonbelievers. Frankston population is comprised of the middle-aged people who are the majority; the aged follow with a percentage of about 22.8% and teenagers and children account for the rest of the population. Studies have shown that there is a high demand for general healthcare, acute, aged, and psychiatric and rehabilitation services (Heinz,1975). Many facilities are offering such services in Frankston but only a few will be mentioned in the report. (ABS)
Public hospitals
The biggest public hospitals in Frankston are Frankston hospital, The Alfred Hospital, Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Epworth Hospital, Knox Private Hospital, The Northern Hospital, and the Peninsula Health (Salzer, 2006). Frankston Hospital is the largest, and it is found on Hastings Road provides general, specialized surgery, pediatric, maternity, and care facilities for the disabled. It is also a major training center for medical staff health services (Cartwright, 1981).Peninsula Health: provides an extensive variety of services from obstetrics to aged care, rehabilitation, emergency, and intensive care, oncology, psychiatric services disability care and it has close to 800 beds. They also train medical staff and research health improvement and it also offers medical training (Roderick, 1985).
Private hospitals
Private hospitals offering acute medical services are very many too but the major ones are Peninsula private hospital, and the St John of God Health Care group which comprises of very many hospitals offering acute medical services (Carmody, et al, 2006) Peninsula Private Hospital on 525 McClelland Drive it is a wide-ranging 155-bed hospital dealing with acute, surgical, cardiac and obstetric services among others. They have high technology medical equipment and also well-trained physicians hence the quality medical services. It is a private hospital hence the costs are quite high and are only accessible to a few (Thomson, 2008). St John of God Health Care on12 Kings Park Road is a group of hospitals all over Australia that provide medical, surgical, maternity, pediatrics, oncology services, and facilities for the disabled. The services in these hospitals are of good quality but a little expensive though cheaper than those of Peninsula private hospital. Another facility is Peninsula Endoscopy center; it is a private hospital that specializes in cancer of the bowel because studies have shown that it is the most common type of internal cancer in Frankston. Patients are responsible for their bills but the hospital offers medical benefits for the patients in collaboration with the various insurance organizations offering the medical cover (Lalonde, 1974).
Rehabilitation centers
There are also various community rehabilitation centers in Frankston and just to mention a few: Peter James center, Home for Rehab Croydon, Croydon road. Home for Rehab Ferntree Gully Albert Street; Cambridge center CRC St Johns Avenue, Frankston Community Rehabilitation Centre, and John of God Rehabilitation Hospital. Some of these are public but most of them are private, they deal with all forms of rehabilitation for example disabilities, drugs, depression among others. John of God Rehabilitation Hospital on 255 Cranbourne Road, provides specialist rehabilitation services such as; Pulmonary program. Hydrotherapy Spinal program Orthopaedic program Pain management, Reconditioning and Neurological program, it is a private center hence patients cover for their relatively high bills (Rannan, et al,2008). Peter James center, CRC and Rehabilitation Home program on Mahoney’s road offers; dietetic nursing, medical assessment, social work podiatry, physiotherapy occupational therapy, speech therapy, and pathology (Watson, 2000).
Psychiatric centers
Lifeworks Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centre is located on 9 Greenwood Ave; it is the biggest psychiatric facility in Frankston, its objective is to provide a quality life for people with psychiatric disabilities, the patients are assigned a personal attendant, the purpose of the program for each of them is stipulated, there are both personal and group activities, offered in the institution, the environment is very friendly and social interaction under supervision is allowed. The facility is funded by the Department of Human Services hence the patients do not pay for the services (Wujastyk, 2004). Australian Croatian Community Services (ACCS) is also a major facility that offers community services to people in Frankston including help to psychiatric patients especially those that have been through devastating events such as war and genocides, the services are free and the facility is a nongovernmental organization and it makes no revenues from its operations (Edward, & Eric1993)Other facilities offering the same services are: Psychiatric Care Consultants 81-83 Burgundy St, Heidelberg avn; Melbourne Psychiatric Services Nursing Agency 146 Burgundy and Pleasant View Psychiatric Hospital on Pleasant View Drive among others (Jones, 1989)
Other services
Other services found in Frankston are facilities for the old aged, the major hospitals mentioned earlier have these programs for the old but they are not developed as those offered by various private facilities like Lorikeet Lodge which offers; Physiotherapy, Reflexology, and Aromatherapy among other services; LC Aged Care is a family group that has been caring for the aged for a long time; Cardinia Casey Community Health Centre, and the Royal District Nursing Service among others (Brown, et al,2005). From the above research, Frankston has many types of health services being offered by the various health facilities. They include:
- General health care
- Health care for acute cases and intensive care
- Surgical services
- Women health services
- Mental health services
- Rehabilitation services
- Care for the disabled
- Aged health care
Frankston has most of the important health services required in a society, and their accessibility mainly depends on one’s financial ability. People who require rehabilitation have been taken care of by the government since there are many facilities for that. The general public has also been provided with many options of health facilities hence they can access healthcare very easily. However some services are not easily accessible such as care for the aged; most of these services are offered by the private sector, which makes them very expensive hence the government needs to expand those services in the government health facilities to them available to everyone. (Marlatt,1985).
Another service that is not easily accessible is care for the disabled, which is also available mostly in private facilities. All health facilities are open to everyone including the immigrants as long as they have a visa showing that their presence in the country is legal. They are also required to pay for their health care bills because the government does not reimburse their costs (Carmody, et al, 2007). Transport in Frankston is available both by road and rail; there are metropolitan buses that make it easier to move within the city and also there is a railway station on Young street hence accessing the facilities is easy. Finally, Frankston health and social services are well developed although some especially the public facilities need some improvement both in service delivery and technological advancement (Marlatt, Gordon, 2000).
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