Outreach surgical consulting services in North East Victoria

There is a paucity of data regarding the provision of consultative outreach specialist surgical services to rural areas. This paper aims to describe a model of outreach consultative practice to deliver specialist surgical services to rural communities.

Analysis of prospectively collected data for consultations in a three month period for two surgeons based in Wangaratta.

Two surgeons in regional Victoria based in Wangaratta, North East Victoria, conducting outreach consultations to Beechworth, Benalla, Bright and Mansfield.

All patients seen in consultations over a 3-month period.

Patient workload, casemix of presenting complaint, consultation outcome including plan for surgical procedure.

Outreach surgical consulting was associated with a higher proportion of new consultations, and there was trend towards being more likely to result in a surgical procedure than consultations in the base rural centre.

Outreach surgical consulting provides surgeons with a larger referral base and provides communities with better access to local specialists. Outreach practice should be encouraged for surgeons in regional centres.