The guts of it: New Cooktown health service keeps patients closer to home
A medical procedure used to examine internal organs with a small camera on a tube is being delivered at a remote southern Cape York hospital.
A medical procedure used to examine internal organs with a small camera on a tube is being delivered at a remote southern Cape York hospital.
Health workers at Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service can now provide endoscopies and colonoscopies, having already treated 12 patients recently.
The minimally invasive check-up, which can be used to diagnose conditions and identify ulcers and tumours, would lead to better health outcomes for rural and remote patients, TCHSS director of Medical Services Eastern Dr Natasha Coventry said.
“This is an incredibly exciting milestone, and we’re proud to celebrate the impact it will have for rural patients,” Dr Coventry said.
The service, delivered in partnership with the Metro South HHS and Cairns and Hinterland HHS, will mean patients won’t be forced to drive hundreds of kilometres to seek treatment.
“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,” Dr Coventry said.
“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,” Dr Coventry said.
“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 is done.
“Then (you stay) 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.”
TCHHS is encouraging more people to undertake a faecal occult blood test as part of the national bowel cancer screening program.
“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,” Dr Coventry said.
“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.”
“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.’’
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 also grew up in Cooktown and has returned to work in his hometown.
Dr Sadleir said the service would likely save lives by identifying conditions 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 service was a powerful example of collaboration between rural and larger health services, combining their efforts to deliver specialised treatment in remote areas.
“Their ongoing support has made this service a reality,” she said.
Cooktown Hospital is set to undergo a $200m upgrade to be completed in 2029.
Originally published as The guts of it: New Cooktown health service keeps patients closer to home
