Physiotherapist empowers paediatric and neonatal care in the South West

Meet WA Country Health Service’s Laura Macaulay, one of the South West's allied health professionals passionate about positive health outcomes for paediatric patients.

Growing up in the region, Laura is committed to providing care to her local community.

As a physiotherapist at Bunbury Regional Hospital and at Bunbury Child Development Services, providing care for young children and their families locally is something especially close to her heart.

“I always wanted to be a paediatric physiotherapist,” she said.

“I love working with my patients and their families, making sure they have access to the services and support they need.”

In her role at the hospital, Laura works with paediatricians to support family with little ones requiring specialist care.

“We follow up on the vulnerable babies in the first year of life, as our neonatal patients are often born premature,” she said.

“They can have some movement concerns and we’re there to make sure they have that developmental support so they’re growing up healthy and happy.”

Committed to helping to continue to grow services which support families in the region, Laura has been working to further develop neonatal and physiotherapy pathways at Bunbury Regional Hospital.

“Bunbury is a large regional hospital and we’re always looking at ways to integrate and expand more specialist care into our current services,” she added.

For the past year, Laura has also worked alongside the CIRCLEcare program at Bunbury Regional Hospital.

CIRCLEcare stands for Collaborate Interdisciplinary Regional Complex Care Link Enablement care and helps support families of children with complex needs and may need to see multiple health professionals.

“Because I am a paediatric physio, I’ve been helping supporting clients within the program to help link in with the most optimal physiotherapy pathways,” she said.

“Helping make sure there is that coordination of care and wraparound support.”

Her roles across the two sites allow her to ensure families can access the right physio support both in the hospital and the community.

“We know there is that need for support in the South West and I’m really glad that I can be part of this and help patients and their families get the care they need.”