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NEWS
The highway to health
In an Australian first, an innovative Queensland cardiologist has taken his practice on the road in a purpose built rig to deliver specialist heart care services to rural and regional areas of AustraliaEvery second Thursday a little before dawn in the sleeping town of Dalby, roughly two and half hours west of Brisbane, Queensland the silver K200 Kenworth hauling the Heart of Australia’s purpose-built trailer rolls into town and sets up for the day.
The "Heart of Australia" brings specialist medical services to rural communities on a 25m-long custom-designed clinic-on-wheels, hauled by a Kenworth K200 prime mover, donated by PACCAR Australia. In terms of the area it will cover, this also promises to be the most ambitious service of its kind anywhere in the world.
The air-conditioned, self-sufficient trailer provides two private clinic rooms, a testing room, a reception area for patients and is wheelchair accessible. It is the brainchild of Dr Rolf Gomes who spent more than $1 million developing the mobile medical clinic.
"The idea came to me over five years ago when I was practicing out in some of the regional areas as a junior doctor and registrar," Dr Gomes explained.
"I experienced at that time how difficult it was for patients out in these areas to access the services that patients in the city take for granted."
Dr. Gomes says cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in Australia, with one person dying every 12 minutes, and people living in remote areas have a far higher rate of hospitalisation and death resulting from the disease.
"The key problem is that so many of these communities do not have specialist cardiac health services," Dr. Gomes said. "That’s the reason I founded Heart of Australia – to give people in the bush access to the same services the rest of Australia takes for granted."
In its first year, the mobile unit aims to travel more than 74,000 km, covering an area of over 460,000 square km. This will allow people from remote areas to access specialist services they would usually have to travel sometimes thousands of kilometres to reach.
The mobile unit will stop in an outback town for two days and return for another two days each fortnight.
"The fortnightly visits will enable us to examine all the patients in a town referred by local general practitioners, and follow-up on the progress of patients seen on earlier visits," Dr. Gomes said. "In addition, we will have experts in different specialties on different visits.
"On our first visit, for example, we would have a cardiologist. On our second visit to the town, we may have a cardiologist and an endocrinologist. On visits, when a particular specialist isn’t onboard, they can still conduct follow-up consultations via teleconferencing and telemedicine," he explained.
Onboard at all times will be a nurse, a consulting cardiologist and a cardiac scientist/sonographer. Other specialists and support staff will fly into towns and join the mobile clinic when required.
Heart of Australia has attracted widespread support from the Australian Medical Association Queensland, the Medicare local health bodies which co-ordinate regional services and also a growing number of local GPs and councils. In addition, Dr. Gomes has gained the backing of Queensland’s largest private cardiology group, the Queensland Cardiovascular Group, which will assist with the provision of the required cardiologists.
In addition, the program has received funding from the Australian and Queensland governments, and support from various corporate sponsors including Arrow Energy, St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, Bayer Australia and IOR Petroleum.
PACCAR Australia was the first to back the program with the provision of a Kenworth prime mover for 12 months, covering the first phase of the program. In addition, Brown and Hurley, PACCAR’s longest-serving and largest dealer group, will provide truck service and maintenance throughout this time.
"We’re proud to have PACCAR as our major transport partner – they have been critical to the success of this program," Dr. Gomes said.
The trailer was custom built by Varley Group in Brisbane. It comprises a variety of air-conditioned rooms, including a reception and waiting area, several consultation rooms, a testing room and an amenities area. A wheelchair access lift has also been fitted.
All non-invasive tests available to patients in Brisbane will be available onboard the mobile clinic. This includes everything from an echocardiogram, cardiac ultrasound and cardiac stress testing to heart monitoring, blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnoea testing.
"When I began working on this program, one of the aims was to ultimately offer a range of specialist services beyond cardiology. We have achieved this even before the program has begun. We will be offering respiratory physicians as well as an immunologist and endocrinologist. That’s just the start. Before long we’ll be offering other medical disciplines." Dr. Gomes said.
"Heart of Australia was my vision, but it’s the result of a joint effort by a large number of individuals and organisations, including generous sponsors, like PACCAR Australia," he concluded.
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Written byTrucksales Staff
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
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