and Naomi Kinast facilitate (Photo: DDH)
June 21, 2023
Kingaroy Hospital began its long-awaited teleoncology service on Tuesday morning, with the first patient receiving treatment.
The patient has been attending the Toowoomba Hospital’s Regional Cancer Care service each week since 2021 and has recently started receiving treatment every three weeks.
Instead of having to travel to Toowoomba, the patient this week remained in their hometown to receive the one-hour infusion, enabling them to schedule their local appointment around their workday.
The teleoncology service at Kingaroy Hospital is the first time an “outreach” model has been implemented by the Darling Downs Health service.
This means a highly-skilled, cancer care nurse from Toowoomba travels to Kingaroy each week to facilitate the treatment while being supported by a team of clinicians in Toowoomba via a live video link.
This allows the Kingaroy nurses to learn more about cancer care, while at the same time, gaining the formal skills to facilitate the treatment themselves.
“When I told one of our patients they could have their treatment in Kingaroy, their eyes welled up with tears,” Acting Teleoncology Clinical Nurse Consultant Naomi Kinast said.
“Sending out our outreach nurse builds a rapport, and our patients have such confidence in the service we provide.”
The service has been so well received that another long-term oncology patient delivered a cake to the nursing team in Kingaroy to wish them well for their first day.
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