Cairns
Area Supported
The Cairns Hub Specialist Palliative Care Rural Telehealth Service aims to support clinicians caring for patients from Tully in the South, North through Cape York and the Torres Strait and westward to Croydon, capturing the HHS areas of Cairns and Torres and Cape
This service operates during business hours of the working week and has additional support through PallConsult, a 24/7 on-call service for doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals.
Patients who will be considered for specialist palliative care support will be those patients with a life limiting illness.
Support can be provided for:
- Symptoms with which the primary care team require further advice to manage optimally
- Psychosocial needs that require specialist assessment
- Supporting a patient approaching the dying stage and requesting further guidance on medications and caregiver advice.
Regrettably the service cannot support patients who have chronic pain issues nor complex psychosocial and psychiatric needs if the prognosis is considered more than 12 months.
Contact details
Phone: 07 4226 6475
Email: CHHHS_CaRS_SPaRTa@health.qld.gov.au
For immediate clinical advice:
- Monday to Friday, 8am-4pm: 0459 682 714 (to speak to a Gold Coast palliative medicine doctor involved in hub’s rural telehealth service)
- 24/7 - PallConsult 1300 PALLDR (1300 725537) advice hotline. Doctors and nurse practitioners needing palliative and end-of-life care advice can also phone 1300 PALLDR to speak directly with a palliative medicine specialist.
Make a referral
Download our referral form here: Cairns Rural Telehealth Referral Form
Fax: 07 4226 8100
Phone: 07 4226 6000
Our team
- Consultant —Dr Anna Morgan
- Pharmacist – Annette Bush
- Clinical Nurse
- Social worker
- Administrative Officer
How to arrange a telehealth appointment
- Download our referral form Cairns Rural Telehealth Referral Form or send a referral letter with appropriate clinical information.
- Fax the referral to (07) 4226 8100. If it is urgent, please call 07 4226 6475 and ask to be put through to the Palliative Care Telehealth doctor to discuss.
- You will be contacted by our admin staff to organise a time convenient to you.
New telehealth consults should occur alongside a visiting clinician be it the General Practitioner, Clinician or Nurse Practitioner.
Once a date and time has been organised by our helpful staff, we will contact the patient to go through an assessment form the day prior. An up-to-date list of medications is important to have available.
On the day of the telehealth consult we will connect to your device either through a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. After the appointment, an appropriate future telehealth review can be arranged at the patient’s home or another facility.
Nurses will contact critical patients 48-72hr time to ensure that all questions were answered, and assess effective treatment.
This incredibly important service will be evaluated alongside the University of Queensland, Centre of Online Health which may approach you and/or the patient following your consent.
Specialist Palliative Care Rural Telehealth hopes to support rural and remote Queenslanders and their talented clinicians who work locally. Together we will work hard to keep patients where they prefer to be with the right care at their incredibly important time of life.
Contact details
Phone: 07 4226 6000
Email: CHHHS_CaRS_SPaRTa@health.qld.gov.au