RBWH Nurse Navigator for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Yashni Kander, Algon Naylor, RBWH patient, and RBWH Cultural Capability Officer Geoff Binge

A new pre-surgery health and wellness check initiative is underway at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) producing significant improvements in surgery attendance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients across the state.

RBWH experienced high rates of surgical appointment cancellations, also known as Failure to Attend, on the day of surgery by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. Hospital staff worked together to investigate the barriers contributing to cancellations and developed the pre-surgery health and wellness check.

The program was trialled during a six month period in mid-2020, resulting in a 45.5 per cent decrease in surgery cancellations compared to that time the previous year.

RBWH Nurse Navigator for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Yashni Kander consults with each patient seven and three days prior to their scheduled surgery.

“The pre-surgery health and wellness check strengthens cultural and clinical support for the patient during their surgical journey by addressing transport issues, language barriers, health literacy concerns and confirms the patient’s physical condition and ability to attend surgery,” Yashni said.

“I am able to link patients with support services including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Hospital Liaison Service and attend surgical appointments with the patient if needed.

One patient who benefitted from the pathway was Algon Naylor from Hope Vale in far north Queensland. He travelled over 2,000 kilometres to RBWH for perioperative eye surgery. The long journey involved 24 hours of combined travel by car to Cooktown, a small plane flight to Cairns and onwards to a large commercial flight to Brisbane.

RBWH Cultural Capability Officer Geoffrey Binge said the Failure to Attend and Discharge Against Medical Advice rates often stem from the long distances required to travel for patients from rural and remote communities.

“Patients can experience a long journey and these travel obstacles to attend surgery appointments can result in patients deciding not to travel to RBWH at all. Their illness can manifest and become quite serious requiring urgent care and treatment,” Geoffrey said.

“This is the main reason why the program is so successful. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hospital liaison and nurse navigator support the patient through their entire hospital journey.”

Algon said he was pleased with his experience and felt supported by the health and wellness check.

“It helped me a lot. The nurse navigator and ophthalmologist were very good at arranging everything for me,” Algon said.

He encouraged others to use the service.

“Don’t be afraid to come down for surgery, the doctors and nurses are very good here,” Algon said.

To find out more watch the video RBWH Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellness, email Yashni.Kander@health.qld.gov.au