Mending rural hearts

'Heart of Australia' truck delivers a healthy outlook to rural communities.

TRUCK TO THE RESCUE: Heart of Australia made a stopover in Chinchilla on Monday. Picture: Amani Vassiliou

ENCASED within a 34-wheel truck is Australia's largest mobile medical clinic and on Monday Chinchilla residents were invited aboard.

Making a special stopover in town, HEART2 is the second truck and newest chapter in Heart of Australia's mission to deliver specialist medical services to outback Queenslanders.

It joins HEART1, the original custom built 18-wheeler clinic, which began delivering specialist services to the bush in 2014.

Operations manager Chris Wilson has been involved with the project since its genesis.

He said the new truck had opened up a world of possibilities for the clinic.

"Now we have two trucks, we have split what we used to do as one route into two, the Southern and Northern routes,” Mr Wilson said.

"We are going further and staying longer in these rural areas and that allows us to see a lot more patients.”

The second mobile clinic has allowed Heart of Australia to add more townships to its routes.

Today, it services 19 rural and outback communities and saw its first ever patient in Dalby on September 26.

On Monday afternoon, it welcomed Chinchilla patients through its doors.

"At this point Chinchilla is not on the routes currently, but there is always a possibility it could be,” Mr Wilson said.

"The reception today has been great, we have had councillors, health professionals and some public come through.

"Hopefully they can take the news of what we can do - the specialist services we offer - and take it further out to the community.”

Heart of Australia founder and cardiologist Dr Rolf Gomes said "people living in rural or remote areas are 44 per cent more likely to die from heart disease than their city-dwelling counterparts”.

"The sad thing is so many of those things are so readily treatable if you just know about them early enough, which the clinic tries to do,” Mr Wilson said.

To access more information about the Heart of Australia moving clinic program, GP referrals or to make an appointment head to www.heartofaustralia .com.au.