Clinic Story

Sandra Armstrong | Lillian Inkamala

The new Imanpa clinic was built in 1986. It is a reasonably large building, constructed of sheet metal with wood paneling inside.

Before that the old clinic was a very small brick building that had only one office and one dressing room. The new clinic has got two doctor's rooms, one for men and one for women, a dressing room, an office, a store room for medicines and bandages, a waiting room and a tea room and laundry, as well as two inside and two outside toilets, one for men and one for women.

The dressing room is the main area of activity for the day to day running of the clinic. This is where the health workers can change and apply dressings for wounds, burns, boils and other minor problems. It is also the place that people and children are weighed, and blood pressure, temperature and blood sugar levels are checked.

There is one fulltime registered nurse (piranpa - whitefella) and two Anangu health workers who work here, one full time and one part time. Between them they carry out all the nursing duties. They also go out to attend accidents on the road in the community ambulance. There are a lot of accidents involving tourists on the main road, which is the road between Erldunda (on the Stuart Highway) and Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Visiting Doctors attend the clinic from Alice Springs. There used to be a doctor at Mutitjulu (the community at Uluru) who used to visit every fortnight, along with the women's nurse there and the physiotherapist. But the since the doctor left, other doctors now come from town (Alice Springs) and they come much more infrequently.

The main health issues for people in Imanpa community are 'sugar problems' i.e. diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Imanpa Clinic	Lillian checking Elsie's blood pressure
Lillian checks Elsie's temperature	Lillian Inkamala preparing a dressing
Sandra looking after a little baby, Talisha	Sean Campbell on the weigh-scales