Foot and Hand Care course

Some of you may not be aware that there is a new foot and hand carers course that has just started up with East Gippsland TAFE.

http://www.footandhandcarers.com

The course was designed and is being taught by Mal Walker, a Podiatrist who owns and runs a practice in East Gippsland.

From what I understand there is at the moment only a Certificate III course up and running but there are plans to run a more advanced Certificate IV course.

The intention is that nurses trained through this course can provide foot and hand care to aged care facilities around Australia.

Take a look,

Matt

Methanol and Formalin

Bjorn raised the issue about Formalin and Methanol, noting some sources recommend diluting formaldehyde with roughly 6% Methanol and the rest water. For those who don't know Formalin is Formaldehyde diluted with water typically.

When formaldehyde is stored for long periods of time it can degrade into component parts creating higher levels of Formic Acid. Now technically formic acid is not a major problem for anyone at the levels you will find in stored Formalin but adding Methanol will help to slow this process.

Having asked our local supplier in regards to this issue, he said that he is unable to get pure Methanol but that the short storage times we would have (up to 6 months) would not be an issue.

If you want the details of our local Pharmacist it is:

Mittons Pharmacy
139 Union Rd
Surrey Hills VIC, 3127
Australia
Ph: (03) 9890 2418

Medicare Link

Thanks Stuart for the Medicare Link:

http://www.hic.gov.au/providers/incentives_allowances

Stuart Blyth in attendance

Thanks to Stuart Blyth for attending last night.

The information he provided was great on Medicare. If he has any links to Medicare stuff I will post it here.

He has just made mention of a Formaldehyde Wart treatment product, Lazerformaldehyde, product I have seen before but haven't bothered to look at the website of. I noticed that the formaldehyde was diluted with water. Which might answer a question Bjorn was asking me last night.

The link:

Pedinol Lazerformaldehyde

See you next time. I'm off to Boston!!!

Matt

Peripheral Vascular disease consent form

Hi all,

I spoke some time ago about having a consent form for PVD (or rather these days, PAD) in the practice. I think this is one of the most important consent forms you can have. I personally don't use LA ones because the risk for patients is unreasonable to worry about.

The links for the consent forms in pdf and Word format:

PVD consent form (Word format)

PVD consent form (pdf format)

You can make whatever changes you like. The style I have used is consistent with international protocols for consent forms (if you are wondering why it is so long and wordy).

Hope you like it.

Matt