Book a palliative care telehealth consult

Patients require a clinical referral to access this service in consultation with their GP or treating doctor. Read more about the referral criteria.

Telehealth consults are available Monday to Friday and may be booked directly with the appropriate specialist hub site. A valid medical referral (from the patient’s GP or treating specialist) is required.

The telehealth service is available for rural and remote patients in the location that best suits the patient and local team, for example:

  • The patient’s home
  • Their local hospital
  • A nursing home.
  • A GP surgery

There are 3 parties that will ideally will need to be present at the telehealth consult:

  1. The patient
  2. A local rural clinician present with the patient (e.g. a community nurse, hospital nurse or doctor, an aged care facility nurse or the GP)
  3. The specialist palliative care clinician (at the hub-site, e.g. in the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville or Cairns)

The clinician will need access to an internet connected device with a camera (e.g. phone, tablet or laptop) and a back-up phone number is required should the internet connection fail.

Booking process

  1. Initial communication to arrange telehealth consult
    The rural clinician and/or admin staff phone the hub-site specialist palliative clinician and/or admin staff to organise the telehealth.
  2. Complete administrative requirements
    The hub-site admin staff ensure a valid referral exists from the patient's GP or specialist and source other information from the rural clinician as needed (e.g. scan results, specialist letters)
    Referral forms can be downloaded below:
  3. Consultation
    The telehealth consult takes place at the agreed time with the agreed staff.
  4. Post-telehealth communication
    The hub-site specialist palliative care clinician phones and writes to the appropriate rural clinicians including the patient's GP and any community or aged care facility nurses.

Last updated: 10 January 2023