Paediatric cardiologist under 'intense pressure' in Far North Queensland
Medical advocacy groups and a national charity are backing a call from parents for a second paediatric cardiologist to be appointed in Queensland's vast far north.
Some patients are waiting almost a year to see a paediatric cardiologist in the region, where the rate of rheumatic heart disease in children under 14 is about 30 times higher than the state average.
Doctors' groups say the far north's sole paediatric cardiologist, Ben Reeves, is under "intense pressure and stress" to provide care to children across a region that stretches more than 1,000 kilometres to Cape York and the Torres Strait.
HeartKids chief executive Marcus Sandmann said his organisation was supporting hundreds of families in north Queensland, many of whom were travelling more than 200km for an appointment.
"We've had some families that we've worked very closely with over the years that have had to relocate to Brisbane just based on the need to have better levels of care for their child," he said.
"That's obviously quite daunting and confronting for families to have to do that."
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Leena Singh said the far north needed an additional paediatric cardiologist to meet demand.
The hospital service has been developing a business case to secure the funding needed to bolster its paediatric cardiology care with an extra specialist and more allied health workers and nurses.
"I believe the paediatric cardiologist, as a sole practitioner there, must be under intense pressure and stress," Queensland paediatrician Nitin Kapur said.
Professor Kapur, who until recently was president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' (RACP) paediatric and child health division, said many children had chronic care needs.
He said long wait times led to poorer health outcomes, particularly as GP care was also increasingly hard to access.
The lack of adequate paediatric cardiology services in Cairns, one of the largest centres in northern Australia, has led to calls for more incentives to lure specialists to the regions.
Professor Kapur said more accommodation support, childcare, and the ability to work part-time could help address the situation, as well as a streamlined pathway for overseas doctors to take up positions.
"A lot of our paediatric workforce nowadays is female … and it's difficult for part-time work," he said.
Professor Kapur said the RACP's advanced paediatric training was the only college pathway that mandated time in a regional area.
He said the college would accredit any funded training positions in regional hospitals but a decision to employ a full-time consultant specialist was entirely up to each individual public hospital service.
The Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) branch has also called for more state government investment in attraction and retention incentives.
AMAQ president Nick Yim said a workforce plan was needed to identify which regions had specialist shortages, and where the health system was losing professionals.
"We know that burnout unfortunately leads to doctors leaving the profession, so we do need to ensure they have sustainable workloads," Dr Yim said.
Professor Kapur said paediatricians "have let ourselves down in not strongly advocating for more support as well".
"Probably the government doesn't see this as a priority because outpatient-based, subspecialty medicine-based medicine doesn't grab attention," he said.
Professor Kapur said two new consultant paediatric cardiology positions had been created in Townsville in recent months.
In February, the Queensland government scrapped the Workforce Attraction Incentive Scheme, which offered health workers up to $70,000 to take critical roles in regional areas.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Health and Ambulance Minister Tim Nicholls said the government was committed to delivering 34,200 extra clinicians by 2032, labelling the former government's scheme as "ineffective".
"The Crisafulli government is undertaking significant local, national and international recruitment activities to attract key medical professionals to help address short, medium and long-term workforce needs across the hospital and health system," she said.
"Our hospital rescue plan is investing in health infrastructure across the state, including building new staff accommodation which will go a long way in attracting skilled workers to the regions that need it most."
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