Kidney Health Services expand telehealth to Kilcoy

RBWH nephrologist Dr Adrian Kark and the chronic kidney disease team at Kilcoy Hospital use videoconferencing technology to enhance patient care.

Metro North HHS Kidney Health Service will hold telehealth clinics at North Lakes Health Precinct with patients at Kilcoy Hospital. The new service reduces the time, inconvenience and cost of regular travel to Brisbane for people with chronic kidney disease.

Kilcoy Hospital’s Director of Nursing Lyndie Best said this was a very exciting time for Kilcoy as the hospital continued to explore ways to bring additional services to the region.

“For the first time we can now offer outpatient appointments at the hospital to patients at risk of kidney disease or requiring ongoing treatment and management for kidney related problems,” Lyndie said.

As part of the new kidney outpatient service, people patients are less likely to have to travel to the North Lakes Health Precinct for specialist outpatient appointments or on-going check-ups.

Metro North Kidney Health Service Clinical Nurse Consultant Sally Turner said it was very important to offer services closer to home for all patients across the Metro North service region.

“Through telehealth clinics, patients have immediate access to a specialist renal consultant or nursing staff from the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Kidney Health Service located at North Lakes,” Sally said.