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Acknowledgement of Country

In the spirit of reconciliation, CheckUP acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this website contains images or names of people who have passed away.

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Altitude Eyewear: A week in the life

Our Visiting Optometry Scheme (VOS) Service Providers face a set of unique and demanding requirements, Altitude Eyewear have been delivering culturally responsive optometry services across 18 different island locations in the Torres Strait area since 2006.

Altitude Eyewear’s fly in and fly out service not only meets community demand, accepting walk-ins and welcoming catch-ups but has significantly improved community wellbeing on a holistic level.

Join optometrist (and pilot) Cameron Graco  from Altitude Eyewear for a week in the life of a VOS service provider.

Starting on a Sunday, I begin preparing for the week of work ahead, double checking flyers have been sent out to the communities for the coming week and that patient lists have been emailed to the Primary Healthcare Clinics. I also pack for the week, ensuring my equipment is charged and I have plenty of Medicare forms, patient consult sheets and any glasses required for people in the communities we are visiting this week.

I then head to the airport to load and refuel the plane, ensuring she is ready for an early take off in the morning. Sometimes the IBIS stores on the islands have run out of supplies, so I also visit the supermarket for any last-minute supplies needed for the week ahead.

Before I head to bed, I check tomorrow’s weather report. During the wet season the weather changes so quickly. The latest forecast at least gives an idea of what to expect in the morning. During the dry season the weather is generally perfect for flying, so no stress there. I try to get an early night but with the 4.30am wake-up call looming, I find it hard to sleep.

I wake up five minutes before my alarm, it must be Monday morning. After a quick check of the latest satellite weather, which shows decent conditions and no widespread active thunderstorms, we are good to go. The early morning drive to the airport is nice and quiet. As I drive, I scan the sky for any cloud build up. Once at the airport, I do a daily inspection of the plane and wait for my assistant to arrive, another opportunity to check the weather one last time.

My assistant arrives and we take off just as the sun comes up over the horizon; the day’s blue skies lying ahead. We reach our cruising altitude and set the engine up for the 2 hour and 20-minute flight to Horn Island. All the islands are relatively close in the Torres Strait, the furthest, only 1 hour from Horn island.

Time to descend and down we go, dodging any big clouds on the way. It’s such a nice feeling to have the island insight and clear of any rain or weather. We touch down and unload the plane. Shortly afterwards the clinic car arrives and we set off for the clinic. Once we have unloaded and setup in our rooms, we take a quick stroll to the local council office to sign the visitor book. This is so the community knows who is visiting and for how long.

The clinics are walk-ins and people are quite often happy to sit and wait, chatting to staff or other community members while they wait. The eye tests are done just the same as any suburban practice but with portable equipment. If anyone needs spectacles, we can offer free MASS ones for eligible card holders or free Indigenous Spectacle Supply Scheme (SSS) glasses. If anyone wants a higher quality frame or customised lens like a multifocal, which are not included under the SSS we can supply these as well.

 

Any ocular pathology is referred for ophthalmology assessment and treatment as necessary. All notes are entered into Best Practice clinical software allowing other health care providers access to everything that has been done for the patient. All people that have diabetes will also have retinal photos taken on my portable RetinaVue camera supplied by the Torres Health service. I assess these images and then upload them to Best Practice.

At the end of the working day we fly back into Horn Island as we have a guaranteed bed and food awaiting us there. The flights back to Horn Island from the outer islands are relatively short, most are less than half an hour. The next morning, we are up and back to the airport to fly back out the island again for another day of work. Depending on island population, we will usually be at the one island for 2 or 3 days. Once that island has been seen, we are off to set up at the next island.

Friday comes and when we finish our last clinic session, we fly back to Horn Island to refuel and get a quarantine clearance to fly back to Cairns. The flight home is stress free with good weather, but every now and again the weather is pretty lousy and may delay our flight home until the next morning. During the dry season, this isn’t an issue and flying at night is really quite enjoyable. We touch down in Cairns, unload the plane and head home for a well-deserved Guinness and dinner.

It’s now Saturday and I’m back in the office processing all the paperwork including ordering glasses, setting up payment plans and checking the glasses that have arrived during the week that are to be posted out. Once done, it’s time to settle into a nice relaxing Saturday afternoon before we start all over again on Sunday.

Visiting Optometrists Scheme (VOS)

The aim of the VOS is to deliver Outreach services to people living in regional, rural, and remote locations, who do not have ready access to primary eye care services.

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