A VISITING podiatrist from a Sydney-based company has seen 150 Inverell district clients in the last fortnight, and could come back every six weeks if negotiations go well.

Clini-Call podiatrist Collette Coughlin would provide back up to an Armidale specialist who comes to Inverell once a week and who is booked out until June.

Inverell and district day therapy co-ordinator Sue Thorley, who arranged the visit, said Clini-Call now had to decide whether or not the regular visits were feasible.

One obstacle was the lack of flights from Sydney to Inverell, but Mrs Thorley said 'we'll do everything in our power to make this work'.

Clini-Call is a private company that specialises in aged health care such as podiatry, optometry and audiology.

Mrs Thorley's job organising services such as physiotherapy, remedial massage and occupational therapy for elderly people in the Inverell district allowed her to arrange this first visit from Clini-Call.

Now she hopes it will become a regular service funded mostly by the Commonwealth Government, and said there was more than enough demand for it.

"The company knows the need is here, so it's mainly a case of them working the trips into their normal schedule,” she said.

Ms Coughlin said she had been seeing up to 20 people, mostly the elderly and diabetics, every day in Inverell and Warialda during her eight working days here.

Clients also came from Delungra, Bundarra and Ashford for the service.

"It has gone really well from my point of view,” she said.

"It all ran really smoothly, everyone turned up on time and everyone was really positive.”

Mrs Thorley said organising the visit was made a lot easier thanks to the support of the McLean Memorial Retirement Village, Inverell Community Health and the day therapy volunteers.

"Transporting clients to and from their appointments is quite a large task, so we were very grateful.”

She said it was a very good initial visit that should put the Inverell district in good stead for obtaining the regular services.

Mrs Thorley thanked all the people involved for their support, especially Ms Coughlin and Clini-Call.

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© 2003 Inverell Times

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