Become part of a team who are dedicated to enhancing and connecting primary healthcare to achieve better health outcomes for the South Western Sydney community.
Find your next South Western Sydney general practice career or practice for sale.
Practice vacancy ad request form
Practice for sale form
The mobile service provides an accurate, reliable and precise bone mineral density measurement, negating the need for patients to travel to a major hospital or radiology lab to have their bone density measured.
Tharawal nurse Joanne Ross said the aim of the visit was to promote lifelong bone health through public awareness, education and knowledge of osteoporosis.
“Osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones become fragile and brittle, leading to a higher risk of fractures than in normal bone,” Ms Ross said.
“Osteoporosis occurs when bones lose minerals, such as calcium, more quickly than the body can replace them, leading to a loss of bone thickness so that even a minor bump or accident can cause serious fractures.”
Any bone can be affected by osteoporosis, but the most common sites are bones in the hip, spine, wrist, ribs, pelvis and upper arm.
Although the arrival of the bus on Halloween was coincidental, staff at Tharawal took the opportunity to have some fun with it. They dressed in skeleton costumes and had a face painter on site to help the local children get ready for their night of trick or treating.
“Everyone over 70 who hadn’t had a bone scan within the previous two years, as well as those over 50 with certain medical conditions, was eligible for the scan which was bulk-billed through Medicare,” Ms Ross said.
“Of the 43 that booked for the day we had 35 turn up, which was a good result.”