23 February 2020

Heart of Australia Founder and cardiologist, Dr Rolf Gomes, is heading north in coming days to visit towns earmarked for inclusion in the forthcoming northern expansion of Heart of Australia’s mobile clinical services.

Dr Gomes will be visiting Middlemount, Theodore, Moura and Banana, Weipa, Childers, Richmond and Biloela which will come online by mid-2020.

Heart of Australia currently operates two full-scale and one mini mobile medical clinics. The clinics travel on a fixed route throughout rural and regional Queensland, bringing specialist medical services and the state-of-the-art equipment they require to the communities where they are needed.

Since Heart of Australia commenced operations in 2014, they have seen over 8,000 patients and helped save over 350 lives.

Dr Gomes said he would be meeting with members of the local communities, including local GPs in the coming days to discuss Heart of Australia’s expansion plans.

“Local GPs are the best-informed people when it comes to understanding the local medical needs in the communities where they live and work. Their knowledge and insights will be invaluable in helping Heart of Australia to develop plans for the new northern expansion, to ensure our plans reflect community-specific needs,” Dr Gomes said.

The trip will also allow the Heart of Australia team to identify ideal potential sites to host the heart truck during future visits in each of the towns, being ones that are highly visible and easy for local community members to access.

The team will also acquaint themselves with critical roads and streets, which will assist in developing routes that can accommodate an oversized heart truck.

Dr Gomes said the expansion of services to Weipa, Childers, Richmond and Biloela is being made possible thanks to a $12 million funding commitment from the Federal Government.

“Thanks to the funding commitment from the Federal Government announced in 2019, we will be in a position to progressively increase the number of communities we service, with the new towns including Richmond, Weipa, Cooktown, Sarina, Palm Island, Biloela, Childers, Proserpine and Ayr.”

Dr Gomes said the imminent expansion to Middlemount, Theodore, Moura and Banana has been made possible thanks to a recent partnership with Anglo American.

“We are delighted to have the support of Anglo American, which is allowing us to expand our direct service delivery to the local communities of Moura, Banana, Theodore and Middlemount,” Dr Gomes said.

Dr Gomes said that this week’s advance planning tour is an essential step in bringing the Heart of Australia services to new communities.

“This trip to speak with the communities is an essential step in the process to bring services to these towns. We do a lot of listening and reconnaissance. We then incorporate any new knowledge gained during our trip with the lessons learned from five years of delivering specialist services to rural and regional towns to ensure the expansion is as seamless and effective as possible.

“Taking specialists to regional and remote towns over the past five years has helped save more than 350 lives, and with our expansion into new towns, this number will only continue to rise.”

Heart of Australia’s specialist medical services include cardiology, gynaecology, neurology, gastroenterology, urology, endocrinology and sleep and respiratory functions.

Dates & locations for Dr Gomes’ visit:
Monday 24 February – Weipa
Tuesday 25 February – Childers
Wednesday 26 February – Richmond
Thursday 27 February – Middlemount
Friday 28 February – Theodore, Moura, Banana, Biloela