Surgical outreach clinics in Canada: one neurosurgeon's experience

In this short paper, I present my 3-year experience, from January 2000 to September 2002, with a neurosurgery consultation outreach clinic in Huntsville, Ont. I describe the logistics, advantages, disadvantages and implications for surgeons of outreach clinics and their patients. The clinic was highly successful for the area physicians and the patients, but was discontinued in September 2002 owing to restrictions on my time available for the clinic. New surgical outreach clinics should be carefully planned. The specialist surgeon must have adequate flexibility and time for this activity and the success of the clinic must be assessed regularly.