Sunshine Coast
Area Supported
The Sunshine Coast Hub Specialist Palliative Care Rural Telehealth Service aims to support clinicians caring for palliative patients extending North to Gladstone and westward from Boulia down to Birdsville capturing the HHS of Central West, Central Queensland and Wide Bay.
Rockhampton Specialist Palliative Care Team provide support to Rockhampton and Capricorn Coast.
Contact details
Phone: 1300 184 432
Email: scruralpallcare@health.qld.gov.au
For immediate GP clinical advice:
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
Patients who will be considered for specialist palliative care support will be those patients with terminal illnesses and considered to have a prognosis of less than a year.
- Download our referral form through HealthPathways or Referral Form (PDF 68 kB)
- Fax the referral to (07) 5470 5243. If it is urgent, please call 1300 184 432 to discuss.
- You will be contacted by our admin staff to organise a time convenient to you.
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
- Support applications for MASS Palliative Care Equipment Program
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.
Our team
- Clinical Lead and Medical Director of Sunshine Coast Palliative Care - Dr Prem Ram
- Senior Medical Officers - Dr Matthew Cooper, Dr Susie Muir
- Advanced Trainee
- Advanced Skill Rural Trainee
- Clinical Nurse Consultant - Sharon Adams
- Pharmacist – Ben Newman
- Social Worker – Daniel Polon
- Occupational Therapist – Suzanne Smith
- Administrative Officers - Wendy Burke & Kelly Nash
Arranging a Telehealth Appointment
See Make a referral
Telehealth consults can be arranged at the patient’s home, facility or GP surgery. Ideally the clinician should be present during the appointments. Community nurses can also assist to facilitate telehealth consults.
Our nurse will contact the referring clinician, community nurse or patient to triage the referral and arrange the initial telehealth appointment. It is helpful to have the patient’s consent to assist in sourcing information. Please forward a completed Patient Consent form (PDF 64 kB)with your referral.
Once a date and time has been organised by our helpful staff, the community clinician should review the patient the day prior to the appointment. This review should be recorded using the Point of Care Assessment form (PDF 46 kB). An up-to-date list of medications is important to have available and should be faxed or emailed to our team, with the completed assessment form, prior to the appointment.
Prior to the telehealth consult we will provide a link to connect to our Virtual Clinic. This can be done via a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Our administrative staff will greet you at the start of the appointment to ensure connection, sound and picture are good.
After the appointment, an appropriate future telehealth review will be arranged by our helpful staff. Correspondence relating to the appointment will be forwarded to the patient’s GP and uploaded to The Viewer.
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.
