health minister gets behind-the-scenes tour of cohealth niddrie

There have been exciting developments and upgrades over the past year at cohealth Niddrie, which have allowed us to bring better health and wellbeing services to the community. 

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas visited the site this week to tour the upgrades, which were made possible through the Victorian Government’s 2021 – 22 Metropolitan Health Infrastructure Fund.  

Minister Thomas was also joined by Minister for Industry Support and Recovery and Member for Niddrie Ben Carroll.  

The funding allowed us to upgrade our much-loved physio room at our Niddrie site. Before the works, the physiotherapy room only had the capacity for three people at a time. Now it can hold eight people at a time, meaning that we can run both exercise classes and one-on-one sessions. The new physio facility now means we can offer 30 community exercise groups each month which are all targeted at people aged 65+. 

The funding has also benefitted people using our orthotics services.  

Previously, any modifications to clients’ orthotics had to be sent offsite and clients would have to wait many weeks for the modified orthotics to be sent back to Niddrie.  

Now, however, we have our own podiatry orthotics lab. This means that these devices can be modified and repaired onsite, and clients don’t get sent away to wait.  

We’ve also upgraded the sterilisation room for our dental equipment so that we can continue providing quality, safe dental care to the community.

Ministers Thomas and Carroll were taken on a tour of cohealth Niddrie by site staff from our allied health programs, as well as Chief Executive Nicole Bartholomeusz and Deputy Chief Executive Chris Turner.  

This was a great opportunity to share with the Ministers how cohealth is continuing to provide care to over 1,200 people who use the Niddrie clinic each month. 

cohealth has embedded itself in the community at Niddrie and, with the support of the Victorian Government, is able to offer programs and services to people facing barriers to healthcare. 

This Metropolitan Health Infrastructure funding has made such a difference to both our clients and our health professionals, enabling us to have an even greater impact on the health and wellbeing needs of the entire community.  

Services at cohealth Niddrie continue to grow, and we currently offer: 

• our Hospital Admissions Risk Program, which actively targets people with complex needs to keep them out of hospital emergency departments 
• 30 group exercise classes for people aged 65+ each month to help improve people’s wellbeing, increase their steadiness and reduce trips and falls  
• allied health services for adults and children including physio, podiatry, speech therapy and occupational therapy  
• counselling services  
• dental care 
• drug and alcohol counselling.