She’s been a Sports Physician to the stars but now Susan White is using her expertise to help the community.

With more than 25 years’ experience as a sport and exercise physician, and five Olympic and Paralympic games under her belt, Dr White is now leading Cabrini’s Sport Injury Clinic.

The new service, which launched in March, runs every Monday and is an opportunity for people who received care in the hospital’s emergency department during the week and weekend to have a follow-up appointment to discuss their next stage of treatment.

Dr White said the clinic was set up to offer “the next step” for patients, and in particular to help parents of injured children who wanted advice following a weekend injury or concussion.

“This is the immediate next step in managing the injury,” Dr White said.

She said the service was bulk-billed through Medicare and provided patients with a definitive diagnosis before discussing the next step – whether that was an MRI or to see a surgeon or physiotherapist.

“And we let them know when they can return to sport and every day activities. Particularly with things like concussion, it’s about when the child can return to school,” she said.

“The most common injury we see is sprained ankles and the second is concussion, followed by knee and shoulder injuries.

“If they get an injury that requires them to go to hospital, Cabrini then offers an immediate follow up with a sports physician and provides patients advice and guidance.”

Dr White said while most of her career had been spent treating elite athletes, she loved working with the community at a grassroots level.

As part of Cabrini’s partnership with the South Metro Junior Football League (SMJFL), Cabrini will subsidise 50 per cent of any SMJFL player’s visit to the Emergency Department throughout the 2019 season. The partnership provides players, umpires and spectators with reliable and sound medical care if injured during a match. Learn more.