Pioneering heart and lung services awarded for innovation

A staff duo from Metro North’s Heart Lung Clinical Stream have been recognised for their work in pioneering a number of initiatives to address health inequities and improve the health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people.

Executive Director Professor Peter Hopkins, and Program Manager Archana Mishra were the winners of the 2024 Australasian College of Health Service Management Leadership in Service Delivery Award sponsored by Bond University, which awards high-value health care providers who demonstrate excellence and innovation beyond the norm.

Peter and Archana established a first of its kind Indigenous Heart Lung advisory group with the traditional name Tamaya (short for Tago Magul Yadeni) in November 2021. The group, which consists of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander consumers, clinicians and members of the Metro North Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander leadership team, provides advice, guidance and support to inform Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initiatives.

The team’s other winning initiatives, Urban Respiratory Outreach Clinic (UROC) and Heart Outreach Program for Health Equity (HOPE) were established as a result of discussions with Tamaya, providing alternative models of care to improve clinic attendance and cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Prof Peter Hopkins said the program had been a success in bringing care closer to patients.

“In heart and lung clinics, we have been hearing for quite some time about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients seeking care outside the hospital setting, closer to home and embedded in community.

“This is why it was so important for us to partner with primary healthcare and our consumers to establish alternative models of care, with cultural safety and positive experiences the overwhelming priority for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and their families and caregivers.”

UROC is a co-owned, co-designed and co-implemented initiative delivered in partnership with Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH). It provides specialist respiratory outpatient clinics and same day lung function testing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their immediate families at the Moreton Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (MATSICHS) Morayfield and Margate sites each Monday.

HOPE is the sister program to UROC providing specialist cardiology clinics and telecardiac investigations to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, a partnership across Metro North sites of RBWH, TPCH and IUIH and community.

The program provides specialist cardiology clinics at Moreton Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service sites of Margate and Caboolture. Same day cardiac investigations are provided in partnership with the RBWH telecardiac investigation unit, reducing the need for multiple appointments for patients.

“These clinics have successfully addressed barriers to healthcare access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particularly by providing care in culturally safe and appropriate environment and removing the fear of attending appointments in traditional healthcare facilities,” Prof Hopkins said.

“This has been evidenced through very high levels of patient satisfaction following clinic attendance and high volume of patients returning for care and follow up.”

In their first year of operation, the clinics received 320 referrals and saw 216 new patients, resulting in over a 50 percent reduction in long waits.