Orthopaedic outpatients on the wait list in Mount Isa can now access virtual support via a new telehealth partnership with the QEII Hospital.
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The Telehealth Clinic launched on February 1 and is based at Mount Isa Hospital, virtually connecting regional outpatients with orthopaedic and allied health specialists.
The service is led by Director of Medical Services at Queensland Health Dr Chris Bell.
Dr Bell says the pilot will address a gap in specialist availability in the region and ease mounting pressure on regional waitlists by adopting a model similar to QEII's successful Musculoskeletal Management Clinic (MMC).
"Mount Isa has a significant category three orthopaedic waitlist and doesn't have an orthopaedic service, which has created a backlog of waitlisted outpatients," he said.
"We determined we could help reduce that backlog through virtual assessment, adopting some of those methods that have been successful in our clinics."
Brisbane based doctors will assess whether a patient requires surgery or not while local allied health staff will facilitate the telehealth appointments.
"Before the MMC clinic, QEII would take referrals straight from the community, but we found that only one in ten patients was suitable for surgery, whereas the other nine were either not suitable for medical reasons or had a condition that could be improved with allied health intervention," Dr Bell said.
"By adopting that same lens to Mount Isa, where they have a whole suite of under utilised allied health resources, we can help them see those community referrals with some support from the extended scope of practitioners that we have here."
Clinical Lead Physiotherapist Stuart McCaskill leads the virtual clinic, where he assesses, diagnoses and develops management plans for orthopaedic outpatients.
"Patients are then either placed on a surgical waitlist or referred to our Conservative Management Service, which consists of physiotherapists, dieticians, psychologists and pharmacists," he said.
Dr Bell said the ultimate aim is to remove long wait list issues in the North West Health Service.
"Once we've cleared the backlog, what we hope is those patients can get timely treatment and access to the full suite of specialties just like anyone else in Metro South does," he said.
"I hope this is a proof of concept for other regional centres in Queensland that face similar challenges.
"From a surgical perspective, I want telehealth to become a very integrated part of how we run our clinics, so we can open the door for those communities to access the same treatment as any other Queenslander."