HeartKids calls for fly-in fly-out specialist to be sent to Cairns
The leading charity for children’s heart disease is calling for a fly-in fly-out doctor to help Far North Queensland’s only cardiologist, as more than 250 children wait to be treated.
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The leading charity for children’s heart disease is calling for a fly-in fly-out doctor to help Far North Queensland’s only cardiologist, as more than 250 children wait to be treated.
Ten of those are in the most urgent category.
HeartKids, dedicated to supporting children and families impacted by heart disease, says four young lives are lost every week in Australia with some regional and remote families travelling more than 200km to access cardiac care.
Children with heart conditions in the Far North are facing delays of more than 300 days as they wait for appointments with Benjamin Reeves.
Dr Reeves is the only pediatric cardiologist covering Cairns and outreach clinics across remote communities including Cape York and Torres Strait.
HeartKids chief officer, Marcus Sandmann, said the situation was dire.
“It’s unrealistic for families to have to travel hundreds of kilometres for an appointment,” he said.
“The priority really needs to be that Dr Reeves has another cohort up there to be able to support the urgent need and the sheer scale.”
Patients of Dr Reeves who require surgery or advanced treatment must travel to Townsville, Brisbane or even Melbourne, creating additional financial and emotional strain on already struggling families.
“Transporting everybody to a metro hospital to service the need, that’s just not sustainable,” Mr Sandmann said.
Parents report significant anxiety when their children experience heart-related symptoms while Dr Reeves is conducting outreach work, with no specialist cover at Cairns Hospital for emergency visits.
“We’re talking about a huge area and the added issue of rheumatic heart disease in remote regional communities,” Mr Sandmann said.
The Cairns Post asked the state government if it would support flying in a paediatric cardiologist from Brisbane to alleviate immediate wait times but did not hear back in time for publication.
Mr Sandmann said the situation was critical for Indigenous communities, where preventable RHD remains high. Indigenous Australians in remote and regional communities are 60 times more likely to be affected by the condition.
“We want to empower Aboriginal communities in reducing acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, focusing on collaborative solutions,” he said.
“It requires organisations working together for specialised care in regions … working with specialised care and cultures that are going to assist the care getting into the
community.”
The total economic burden associated with childhood-onset heart disease is estimated to be about $2.292bn dollars per annum, including an approximate GDP loss of $12.89m annually.
“That’s lived experience, that’s mental health support, there’s a lot of neurological developmental issues with young babies and the number of treatments that they go through,” Mr Sandmann said.
“It’s not realistic to have all that burden put onto a couple of pediatric cardiologists.”
The Cairns Hospital is developing a business case to strengthen the region’s pediatric cardiology services.
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Originally published as HeartKids calls for fly-in fly-out specialist to be sent to Cairns
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