Metro North Health

For those living in rural Queensland, seeing the doctor may take several days or months. This can be especially difficult with a condition such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which is the reality for over 800 Queenslanders living regionally under the care of the RBWH IBD team.

RBWH Gastroenterology specialists Associate Professor Gareth and Dr George Tambakis have developed a project in which rural IBD patients can access a point of care stool test - similar to a rapid Covid-19 test - that produces test results in just 20 minutes and sends these results back to the team in Brisbane for review.

"Not only is it helping is to deliver care more easily to rural Queensland but it also empowers those patients who if they feel like they have active disease or are worried, they can get an instant result, which allows us to accurately measure their disease and give them the best treatment," Gareth explains.

"We have taken the concept of telehealth and elevated it to the modern standard, so integrating apps, electronic medical records and real time feedback, which allows us to bridge the gap and even the playing field for those who live furthest away from care," Dr Tambakis adds.

In the next three months, the team will review the key outcomes of the study with the hope of making it available further.

For more information on accessing Virtual Care options, click the link in our bio. ...

Are you an Ear, Nose and Throat expert looking for your next opportunity? Then we are all ears to hear from you! 👂👃

Dr Steph is an Otolaryngologist, more commonly known as a Head and Neck surgeon, and she specialises in skull base surgery, helping patients across both RBWH and STARS.

"I do a combination of outpatients and surgery, however the facilities differ in that STARS is quite high volume, we see a lot of patients each day that might have waited a long time for their treatment and we are doing a lot more common procedures there," Dr Steph explains.

"Whereas the RBWH, we are doing more complex surgery cases, a lot of big head and neck surgery cases for cancer and there is a lot of collegiality between various teams, for instance today we did the first half of this surgery, and then the neurosurgeons come through for the second half."

"The thing with ENT that I love is that at the beginning of the day you might be operating on something under a microscope, doing a procedure with really fine work and then by the end of the day you might be doing a big head and neck operation, it`s the variety."

If you are an outstanding ENT Consultant like Steph, then there is an opportunity at Metro North with your name on it. Click the link in our bio and apply today. #WorkforusWednesday ...

Forget Sherlock Holmes, our social workers are deep in detective work to help their patients and families cope with the challenges that might arise from a hospital stay. 🕵️‍♂️❤️‍🩹

Senior Social Worker Helena works in the ICU, with patients who are in a critical condition, but primarily with their families navigating the next steps for their loved one who may no longer be able to make decisions about their healthcare.

"Often we need to find the most appropriate person to be a patient`s substitute decision maker for healthcare matters, and often the reason patients come in isn`t planned so they don`t have the opportunity to express their wishes to their loved ones," Helena says.

"We use police and past hospital records and investigate whether there`s a pre-existing enduring power of attorney (EPOA), which might require some exploratory phone calls. However, we are also balancing a person`s privacy whilst navigating complex family dynamics.

"Because we are a trauma centre at the RBWH, we got a lot of patients who come from elsewhere outside of our catchment area, so we also provide resources for those who might travel into Brisbane and not think about where they might stay, how they will pay for it or how they will return home if they choose not to stay." ...