This is the hope of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District who launched the program in Griffith, Leeton and Narrandera on Tuesday, January 31.

Manager, Summa Stephens hope the CCIS would help provide better services across the area.

“The community care intake service is about providing equitable services to Griffith and surrounding communities,” she said.

“It is about making sure we have a standard that we provide to all our patients across the Murrumbidgee and this is the start of something we would like to roll out across the district.”

Sandra Royal who is in charge of the CCIS for Griffith acknowledged there would most likely be teething problems but hoped it would provide much-needed benefits to the Griffith community in the long run.

 “The centralised intakes is going to mean that our clinicians on the ground are going to spend more time actually doing clinical work,” she said.

This will in preference to doing a lot of the admin intake work they are currently fielding with telephone calls and making appointments and just a lot of time is wasted whereas they could be spending valuable time out there with clients and patients.

“That is one of the big benefits of the centralised intake.

“Gone hopefully are the days where patients would be discharged home without the appropriate follow-up services or proper equipment and we won't have to back pedal to put things in place at the last minute. 

“It is about providing the right care, the right place and the right time.”

The CCIS has been unveiled after lots of work was done within the community to ensure the program us meeting the needs of the community.

Local Health Advisory Committee (LHAC) Chair Margaret King said just looking at the turnout you could see how much of an important issue this is for the region.

Mrs King said a lot of people have difficulty navigating the health system and people only realise what community services are available when they need them, so the LHAC will be doing their best to promote this new service.