THE first patient to receive TeleChemotherapy treatment at Broome Hospital via telehealth last month said having his treatment administered locally improved the experience ten-fold.
Broome resident Noel Swart said being able to receive his treatment close to home had greatly reduced his stress.
Diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in December last year, at the time of writing Mr Swart had undergone five chemotherapy treatments in total, with two of those via telehealth at Broome Hospital.
"We have a telehealth meeting beforehand, so my specialist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth explains how my treatment is going and the results of my blood tests etc and then we get on with the treatment," Mr Swart said.
"You just come in and sit down and the staff are very professional - they hook you up and it only takes a couple of hours and you're back home again, so it's pretty much the same as the treatment you would receive in Perth, but without the hassle.
"The nurses and doctors have been brilliant and it's taken 90 per cent of the stress out of it.
"I think it was going to be a COVID-19 clinic, but they didn't have that many cases up here, so they turned it into the oncology department."
Following on from the success of WA Country Health Service (WACHS) first TeleChemotherapy service, introduced at Karratha Health Campus in September 2019, WACHS recently expanded the service to Broome Hospital and Narrogin Health Campus.
A WACHS spokeswoman said TeleChemotherapy was allowing more country patients to receive their treatment and support locally, ensuring patients could stay in their communities and be close to family and friends in their time of need.
"A metropolitan-based medical oncologist is responsible for determining a patient's suitability for cancer services via TeleChemotherapy, with some higher-risk treatments still requiring travel to Perth," the spokeswoman said.
"As TeleChemotherapy matures, it is anticipated that more cancer treatments will be able to be delivered safely and closer to home for country patients through this model of service."
Registered oncologist nurse Tracey Hunter said she jumped at the opportunity to apply for one of two TeleChemotherapy oncology nurse roles at the Karratha Health Campus.
Ms Hunter said oncology nursing was covered in her bachelor of nursing degree, but she continued to build on that foundation with her experience supplemented by eviQ - a free resource of evidence-based consensus-driven cancer treatment protocol.
"It is information that we can use at the point of care, developed for Australia to support professionals in the delivery of cancer treatment," Ms Hunter said.
"WACHS also supported myself and Karratha Health Campus's other oncologist nurse, Bridie Costelloe, to attend two weeks of practical training at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital at the end of last year," Ms Hunter said.
"That experience was invaluable to facilitate building our knowledge base and our practical experience."
With both nurses having found their passion in oncology nursing, Ms Hunter said they would be expanding their knowledge further, commencing a postgraduate certificate in cancer nursing in July.
She said nursing in a rural area enabled her to form a more personal relationship with her patients who were grateful to receive the service closer to home.
"You really build that professional rapport, because we're such a small community," Ms Hunter said.
"The impact on their home life is lessened as they don't have to travel the 1700 kilometres to Perth and back.
"By having it here, it's just a few hours out of their day and it doesn't disrupt their daily routines or lives very much at all."
Noting current travel restrictions, a WACHS spokeswoman said, alongside WA Health and other key agencies, the organisation had also established a dedicated transport planning cell to assist country patients to access the care they required - when and where they required it.