This week tradesmen are making internal changes to the tavern, near the corner of Frederick and Cumberland Sts, which the Otago District Health Board will use as a Community-Based Assessment Centre (CBAC) to assess and treat people with influenza-like illness if the need becomes great enough, deputy chief nursing and midwifery officer Tina Gilbertson says.
"A CBAC will only be set up if family doctors become stretched or overwhelmed by the number of calls and requests they are receiving from people with influenza-like illness as their numbers increase," Ms Gilbertson said.
"CBACs also aim to keep hospital emergency departments free for emergencies."
Otago has had no confirmed cases of swine flu (H1N1) but on Tuesday Health Minister Tony Ryall told Parliament swine flu was going to become widespread throughout the country.
The aim of CBACs was to separate people with influenzalike illness from other patients, Ms Gilbertson said.
"While most people with influenza-like illness will be able to be cared for at home, family doctors would refer people to a CBAC if they had severe influenza-like illness or underlying conditions such as heart problems which could cause complications."
The CBAC will be staffed by doctors and nurses from hospital and community-based services.
The number of staff will depend on the level of demand.
"The CBAC will assess patients, provide them with advice about how to care for themselves, give them the antiviral medication Tamiflu if appropriate and in some circumstances take a sample for influenza testing, and refer them to other health services such as the hospital for admission if necessary."
The Bowling Green Tavern is owned by the University of Otago.
When it was bought in March, Vice-Chancellor Professor David Skegg said the historic student pub would be converted into offices for academics from the Division of Health Sciences for use by the end of the year.
This week university property services director Barry MacKay said the university "was not leasing the building out" but that it was being used by the health board "as an H1N1 flu centre over the next three months".
Ms Gilbertson said the university been "very supportive of us using the building, which will help us manage health dollar costs".
The building was well-suited to being used as a CBAC because it was centrally located and was "near Dunedin Hospital which makes it easier to staff and to transfer any patients to hospital as required".
The internal fit-out of the building was "modest". How the CBAC and its operation was to be funded was still being discussed with the Ministry of Health, she said.
