South-West Aboriginal Medical Service (SWAMS) chief executive office Glen Power and community health manager Manfred Heiartz, a registered nurse, parked the $260,000 clinic on wheels beside the Collie Medical Group’s Johnston Street building last Thursday, so local people could get a pre-opening look. The diesel-powered Hino 500 truck, with roo bar on the front, includes a nurse’s station/triage room, shower and toilet, kitchenette, and doctor’s consulting room. There is a fridge to store vaccines and medications, blood pressure monitor, ECG and emergency kits, including oxygen “in case something haopopensd”, Dr Power said. “There will be everything there that is in a usual doctor’s surgery.” That doctor’s consulting room has a small desk, cupboard and handwash basin. It also opens out on two sides to accommodate a patient examination couch on one side and a wheelchair lift on the other. It has a computer for so doctors can access patient records from afar, and solar panels on the roof so it can operate for 48 hours if there is no power supply into which it can plug. “It runs on 12-volt power but we can hook up to 240-volt,” Dr Power said. “The total cost was $260,000. We have spent $55,000 to $60,000 fitting it out.” The rest of the money came from the federal government. And, if there is no sun, there is also a generator as a last resort. Dr Power said SWAMS had two female general practitioners who would travel to Collie from next month women’s genaral health services, and child and maternal health. A midwife and paediatric nurse will also come on these visits. The aim is to fill gaps in local services. SWAMS vice-chairman, Norm Hay-ward of Collie, said the clinic on wheels was the result of six years of work. Funding had to be organised, the clinic planned and then built at Gosford, on the coast north of Sydney in New South Wales. Mr Heiartz said: “One of the biggest challenges was maximising the space, not wasting any space at all.” Local people will not have to book appointments. “It will be a walk-in clinic,” Mr Heiartz said.