Aims:

To evaluate patient and staff perspectives on the quality of teleoncology and outreach services in Central Queensland.

Methods:

A survey was implemented in 2 rural outposts of Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital where medical oncologists run a teleoncology service to Bundaberg and rural outreach clinics in both Bundaberg and Rockhampton. The survey was voluntary and anonymous and responses were graded using a Likert scale from 1 to 5. The surveys evaluated patient and staff perspectives on the quality, interactions and logistics of delivering health services in this manner.

Results:

The survey tabled responses from 21 staff and 165 patients (44% of patients were over the age of 65). It found that 80% of staff agreed or strongly agreed, that teleoncology and outreach services were a positive option. Lack of familiarity with the equipment was the main negative from staff. Across centres, the majority of patients were within 25 kilometres of the clinic, however 15% travelled over 200 kilometres to attend. Over 80% of surveyed respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that local programs were favourable when compared to travelling to Brisbane, and there was no difficulty building rapport, although most preferred to have a local nurse present during the consultation. Only one respondent felt uncomfortable discussing prognosis via teleoncology.

Conclusions:

The survey showed, that both teleoncology, and an outreach clinical model are acceptable options to most patients and staff. It showed that in a discipline that involves complex decisions and discussions, patients favour attending services closer to home rather than travelling to Brisbane and despite the majority of patients being over 65, they had little issue with the non-traditional methods. Further expansion of these programs should be implemented, as novel approaches such as teleoncology will improve timely access to subspecialty care in a largely rural state.