Summary
- New endoscopy service at CMPHS has already treated 12 patients.
- This service improves access to care for the community and can save lives.
- Bowel cancer is the 4th most frequently diagnosed cancer in Australia.
An endoscopy service has started at Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service and has already treated 12 patients.
The new service for Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service is being delivered in partnership with the Metro South Hospital and Health Service and Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service.
Professor Gerald Holtmann, Director of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, said addressing the gap in gastrointestinal health outcomes between metropolitan and remote regions was the foundation of the partnership.
“Too many rural patients present with late-stage colorectal cancer that could have been prevented,’’ Prof. Holtmann said.
“By bringing care closer to home in rural and remote centres such as Cooktown, we can improve access to life-saving colonoscopies that can lead to earlier diagnosis.”
Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Director of Medical Services Eastern Dr Natasha Coventry said the start of endoscopy services at Cooktown was a win for the local region.
“This is an incredibly exciting milestone, and we’re proud to celebrate the impact it will have for rural patients,” she said.
“We need more people to do the Faecal Occult Blood Test as part of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.
“By having endoscopy services available locally, we hope more people will take the test and, if it returns a positive result, access timely endoscopic care closer to home.
“We have capacity to do about up to 50 endoscopies in a six-month period and then plan to move to a sustainable locally run service.
“The big advantage of offering colonoscopies locally is that patients can now complete their bowel preparation at home, and then to come into hospital for a couple of hours and return home the same day.
“With colonoscopy being a procedure undertaken under sedation, patients need to be picked up by someone, and that is much easier to facilitate when close to home.
“Currently, if patients need to go to Cairns or elsewhere for a colonoscopy, they must go to a hotel or other accommodation.
“They and their escort need to go down the day before so they can undertake their bowel preparation in Cairns. Their escort stays with them the whole time and waits until their scope it done.
“Then another night in Cairns before travelling home the day after the procedure
“So, it requires two people taking three days off work, for a relatively short procedure. “This may mean that local residents don’t do the Faecal Occult Blood Test as they are not prepared to have the colonoscopy given the inconvenience of going to Cairns or elsewhere. “We are hoping to change that with the service now being available locally.’’
Significantly, GP Endoscopist Dr Shane Sadleir – who is delivering the new service – was raised in Cooktown and has now returned to help provide medical services to his community.
He has been assisted by GP Anaesthetist Dr Dan Hook, who was also raised in Cooktown and returned to work at the local hospital.
Dr Sadleir said offering endoscopy locally not only improved access to care for the community but also had the potential to save lives.
He said bowel cancer was the fourth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second biggest cancer-related killer in Australia, but many of these deaths could be prevented if diagnosed and treated earlier.
“Queensland Health data shows that for bowel cancer there is a significantly lower overall participation rate in rural and remote regions than for Queensland as a whole,’’ Dr Sadleir said.
Dr Coventry said the new endoscopy service at Cooktown was a powerful example of collaboration between a rural health service and two larger health services, combining their efforts to deliver specialised treatment services that would have been challenging to deliver by one health service alone.
“I’d like to acknowledge and thank Metro South Hospital and Health Services for designing and leading the implementation of this new model of care, and for the oversight and governance provided by Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service,’’ she said.
“Their ongoing support has made this service a reality.’’
Read more about bowel cancer on the Queensland government website.