The Heart of Australia General Practitioner education program, sponsored by key supporter, Bayer, just keeps ramping up!
Through November, the numbers of practitioners joining the program continued to climb after a November 6 presentation by Dr. Damian Roper on stress echocardiography in Longreach – with doctors from the local hospital and medical practices, including from Barcaldine and from further afield as doctors dialed in to follow the presentation.
Then, on November 13, six doctors from the local medical centre plus strong supporter of the Heart of Australia program, Dr Desley Marshall, got together at the Jolly Swagman Motel in Goondiwindi for an update on coronary artery medicine from Dr Matthew Pincus.
The strong turnout continued on November 18 in Roma with doctors from Roma Hospital (as well as nurses from the hospital’s cardiac services unit), the Maranoa Medical Centre and Roma Clinic arrived at the Starlight Motor Inn to hear from cardiac rhythm specialist, Dr Robert Perel. Thanks, too, to Menarini for supporting the evening.
Heart of Australia founder, Dr Rolf Gomes, again opened the door to governments to get behind expansion of specialist medical services to rural and remote communities when he addressed the LNP State Council meeting in Kingaroy last weekend.
Dr Gomes was invited to brief the Council members from all over Queensland, including State and Federal LNP parliament members on Heart of Australia’s first year on the road.
He outlined the program’s first-year experience – highlighting that to date, some 2000 patients had been seen, diagnosed and treated, with 70 of them “saved” by urgent, intensive treatment for advanced cardiac illness.
He emphasised that in less than a year from its start Heart of Australia today is regularly servicing eleven communities and reaching as far north as Charters Towers.
Dr Gomes told the Council that with “tangible partnerships with governments”, Heart of Australia could speed up plans to widen its range of specialist medical services to remote communities.
Arrow Energy the foundation partner of the Heart of Australia program, is hosting a special opportunity for Dalby State High School and Dalby Christian College students to learn about the value of healthy lifestyle decisions, including issues such as the impact of obesity in families and the importance of good nutrition and regular exercise.
The students who are studying health education, will visit and learn about the operations of the Heart of Australia mobile clinic and hear from program founder, Dr Rolf Gomes, who says “it is fantastic that our travelling staff will be able to meet these students, answer their questions and perhaps help them to make sound decisions – so that in later life they might never need our clinical services. It fulfils our goal of creating a conversation about health right in the heart of town…it’s terrific!”
Queenslanders in rural and remote communities, battling the double whammy of seemingly-endless drought and shrinking local economies, have been promised that they are not about to lose the privately-backed service – the first in Australia – that gives them monthly “to-your-door” access to cardiac health specialists.
It’s the Heart of Australia program, launched a year ago by Brisbane-based cardiologist Dr Rolf Gomes in partnership with Arrow Energy, using a custom-made eighteen-wheeler road rig. With fully-equipped consulting and diagnostic equipment for monthly cardiac specialist clinics now in eleven bush towns, the service travels a regular 7,000km a month circuit.
That’s more than double the number of towns on the semi-trailer schedule when the service started.
Brisbane-based Dr Gomes told guests at a Heart of Australia first anniversary event that the travelling clinic teams were hearing more and more from patients that opportunities and businesses are leaving bush towns.
“As far as Heart of Australia is concerned, we’re not pulling up stumps, we’re not taking our bat and ball and going home… in fact, we’re coming to you and we’re looking forward to it, so put the kettle on!”
Dr Gomes said: “I’m convinced that what we are seeing is, indeed, a genuine game-changer in how specialist services will be delivered into the future.
“Our groundbreaking service has been welcomed; demand for our service continues to grow; and not a month goes past when I don’t get asked….when are you coming to our town?
“The reality is this: For Heart of Australia to be able to expand its reach and benefit more country Australians…..it needs the security of tangible government support.
“The most common question I encounter from patients and communities is whether government is helping Heart of Australia. In fact, so many people we meet in the bush assume we are a government- funded public service.
“I place on record that I am deeply grateful that just before our launch a year ago, the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments jointly provided Heart of Australia with a small but very helpful startup grant.
“There’s been nothing since…. but we continue to talk with both governments because…..and this is the key issue….our program is, in truth, a pseudo-public service but we are not duplicating or competing with public health agencies.
“Heart of Australia provides access to specialist health services that all Australians are entitled to …. and the cold financial reality is that our service saves the Canberra and Brisbane governments millions of dollars a year – by keeping people alive and out of hospital, by eliminating patients’ travel and accommodation costs away from their homes, by reducing time away from employment and by detecting and treating diseases early…. before costly complications set in.
“Even among the new high-tech citizens of today, there’s still a strong fair- go attitude – the belief that every citizen is entitled to a fair opportunity to benefit from everything our nation offers.
“After all is said and done, Heart of Australia, at its core, offers bush Australians a particularly important fair go and I believe communities have every right to ask their governments -are you supporting Heart of Australia and if not, why not?
“What is certain is that Heart of Australia is here to stay, but Governments …. if they are genuine about looking after people in the bush…. must do their part”.
A lean, knockabout bloke with a cheeky smile and a warm handshake, father of four “Tiger” Flohr reckoned he had no reason to believe he was, as he puts it – “crook”
He soldiered on with a nagging discomfort in his chest because, he says, “in a bush life, knocks and bumps are just normal”.
But in the yard one day at his family home at Capella, that discomfort “hit me and sat me down”.
As so often happens, it was his wife, Valda, who made the move to “check things out”. Valda thought her man might have been describing a hernia pain, so she arranged for “Tiger” to see their family doctor in the Central Highlands town of Clermont.
“I asked the doctor to check on things and I suggested that we should check on his ticker, too,” says Valda.
Their doctor referred “Tiger” to the Heart of Australia program on its next scheduled visit to the rural industry and mining centre of Emerald.
Heart of Australia founder, Dr Rolf Gomes, was the cardiologist-on-duty when “Tiger” kept his appointment on the travelling clinic in Emerald.
In her no-nonsense style, Valda says: “Tiger didn’t do real good on the stress machine”.
Dr. Gomes remembers it this way – “The results of Tiger’s onboard cardiac stress test were grossly abnormal. He was literally a walking timebomb”.
That was on a Friday and Dr Gomes told the Flohrs that he wanted “Tiger” admitted to hospital in Brisbane the following Sunday – for urgent treatment.
It turned out that “Tiger” was literally on the edge of disaster with obstructions – one of 90% and one of more than 70% – in two of his cardiac arteries.
On the Monday in a one-and-a-half-hour procedure, “Tiger” had two surgical stents implanted – and the next day, he was cleared to head home.
He had just one week off work and now, he and Valda are well and truly back into the swing of things, with family and friends and their hobby farm – looking forward to lots more time together after reaching a 51-year milestone as life partners.
Of Heart of Australia, they say: “Don’t miss it. It’s a terrific truck and a terrific service”.
When pressed about a message to others from his experience, “Tiger” says simply: “If something’s nagging at you in a health sense – don’t leave it too late to get help”
