Nukul Murra Health Support Service

Nukul Murra, meaning ‘plenty hands’ in local language, reflects the joint aspirations to create greater service alignment, integration and consumer engagement to improve the health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Western Queensland.

What is Nukal Murra?

The Nukal Murra Alliance brings together the Western Queensland Primary Health Network (WQPHN) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Services (AICCHS) in a regionally focused, culturally informed partnership to improve the health, social and emotional wellbeing of our communities.

The naming of the “Nukal Murra” combines two traditional languages from the Western Queensland catchment; Nukal, meaning ‘plenty or many’ in the language of the lower gulf and Murra meaning ‘hand or hands’ in the language of Central West and South West.

Nukal Murra also reflects our joint aspirations to create greater service alignment, integration and consumer engagement to improve the health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Western Queensland.

Western Queensland Primary Health Network (WQPHN) also provides for an Alliance Contract to support innovation and co-commissioning of mental health and chronic disease support service.

Nukkal Murra Eligibility Criteria:

Indigenous patients who:

• Live in the Western Queensland PHN region and
• have a diagnosed chronic disease.

Nukal Murra focuses on the key lifestyle diseases causing excess mortality and morbidity:

• Cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Chronic kidney disease
• Chronic respiratory disease
• Diabetes
• Mental health
• Exceptional circumstances will be considered on a case by case basis.

Patients are referred by their usual treating doctor and need to have a current GP Management Plan (GPMP).

Services include:

• Gap fees associated with health appointments e.g., allied health, specialist appointments
• Travel and accommodation to attend health appointments
• Webster packs for patients with poly pharmacy
• Assisted breathing equipment – Asthma Spacers, Nebulisers, CPAP & CPAP Accessories,
• Blood Sugar/Glucose Monitoring Equipment
• Medical footwear prescribed and fitted by a Podiatrist
• Mobility aids
• Spectacles

Nukal Murra will provide these services, if documented as a need in patients’ GPMP and where they are not available under other programs.

Referring Doctors need to be aware:

• Nukal Murra focuses on organising schedule planned care in advance
• We require a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to review, assess, respond to your referrals and arrange / purchase agreed services
• Nukal Murra is not set up to address crisis/acute issues
• The service is for patients, not carers
• Doctors should utilise EPC items in the first instance to refer patients for allied health services and refer to Nukal Murra after exhausting EPC appointments
• Patients referred for assistance with CPAP equipment may be assisted only after prerequisite sleep study and diagnosis are completed
• Nukal Murra should be seen as a program for last resort after all alternative programs have been exhausted.

For more information, see: https://www.wqphn.com.au/commissioning/nukal-murra-health-support-services