Response unit relieves

AN INITIATIVE designed to ease congestion in Cairns Hospital’s emergency department has had a significant impact since it was rolled out more than two years ago.

The Low Acuity Response Unit (LARU), which was introduced to the Far North in Oc- tober 2015, has resulted in up to 40 per cent of patients that would have otherwise gone to the ED being redirected to community health services and GPs.

The Queensland Ambulance Service’s Cairns-based assistant commissioner, Michelle Baxter, said the LARU had been a major suc- cess for the department.

“It’s quite successful in its own right, and that’s from doing a lot of work with the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network up to the executive level with the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service,” Ms Baxter said.

“We’ve got a lot of path-