We have recently gained Federal Government recognition as a Specialist Training site, which means you can see our Sports Doctor, Dr James Ooi, for no more than $50 out-of-pocket for a standard appointment. Physiotherapy appointments can be partly claimed from your private Health Insurance extras. Any braces/crutches/other items will be charged separately.

Our standard medical appointments are 40 minutes long for new problems.

Early treatment of sporting and other injuries greatly improves both the speed of recovery and how well you recover. The reason that elite athletes can return to play within a few weeks of a serious injury is mainly due to them spending the first few days treating the injury properly. While this sounds simple, it is easily neglected.

Deciding on when (and if) you need surgery for an injury is also sometimes not as easy as it sounds. Some injuries (e.g. knee or shoulder injuries) might initially seem terrible, but will recover well with good rehabilitation, and without surgery. Other injuries might not seem too bad, but will not do so well without an operation. It takes experience to help make these decisions, and our Acute Injury Clinic is designed specially to provide this service.

Not all injuries need further scans or tests, but if they do we can arrange to get them done right next door at Lake Imaging. Exactly what sort of scan is the best one is sometimes not as simple as you would think, which is why our specialist knowledge of injury management is important.

At the Acute Injury Clinic you will see one of our sports doctors. Our senior Sports Physiotherapist will be there too if you need to see him too.

The Ballarat OSM Acute Injury Clinic is a unique model of care aimed at providing rapid, expert advice on treating new sporting and other injuries.

While hospital Emergency Departments are excellent at deciding if you need urgent treatment (e.g. surgery for very bad fractures), for most other injuries the treatment options can vary from rest, to rehabilitation, to surgery at some time later. The best course of action is often not easy to determine straight away. Getting the right advice about how to treat your injury is the most important first step in getting better.

When we see you within a few days of your injury, we can assess the severity of the injury, discuss the need for any further scans or tests, and start the decision making about the best way of treating YOUR injury.

We will also start you on a rehabilitation program, with early exercises and treatments to make your recovery as quick and as smooth as possible.

We can also arrange follow-up appointments with our Sport & Exercise Medicine Physician, with our (or your usual) physio, and with the most appropriate surgeons if that is the best course of action.