Over 100 years of nursing through pandemics

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult time, our team at Bolton Clarke have continued to provide care and service to Australians, just as they did in the earlier flu pandemic over a century ago.

When the Spanish flu arrived in Melbourne after WWI, the twelve nurses from the Melbourne District Nursing Service (now Bolton Clarke) were already delivering care by bicycle through the laneways of the city.

In 1919 the appeal went out for vehicles and drivers to cope with the increased demand due the pandemic, and just a few months later they were able to treat four times as many patients with the speed provided by the new motor fleet.