Heart of Australia in Outback Australia

Heart of Australia brings specialist services to rural communities in Outback Australia on a 25m-long custom-designed clinic-on-wheels, driven by a Kenworth K200 prime mover.
The purpose-built, self-sufficient trailer provides two private clinic rooms, a testing room and a reception area for patients. It is wheelchair accessible and fully-air-conditioned.
A Queensland cardiologist has taken his practice on the road to deliver specialist heart care services to rural and regional areas, working from a converted semitrailer
Dr Rolf Gomes spent more than $1 million developing the mobile medical clinic, which he dubbed Heart of Australia.
An Australian first, the clinic was a custom-built, 25-metre long semitrailer fully equipped with specialist diagnostic equipment.
"The idea came to me over five years ago when I was practicing out in some of the regional areas as a junior doctor and registrar," Dr Gomes said.
"I experienced at that time how difficult it was for patients out in these areas to access the services that patients in the city take for granted."
The truck was fitted out to perform stress testing, cardiac ultrasound, Holter monitoring and a whole suite of other non-invasive cardiac and respiratory tests.
"What that allows us to do, in a practical sense, is to close that loop from symptom to diagnosis to treatment, potentially all within 24 hours," Dr Gomes said.
The semitrailer will be staffed by a rotating team of cardiologists and respiratory specialists.
Cardiac sonographer Stefanie Purcell came on board to help treat patients in Dalby, in south-west Queensland.
"It's just as good as what I would get in a public hospital or a private hospital," Mrs Murcell said.
"It's more than enough space and the facilities are the same as what we would get in Brisbane."
“The key problem is that so many of these communities do not have specialist cardiac health services,” Dr. Gomes said. “That’s the reason I founded Heart of Australia – to give people in the bush access to the same services the rest of Australia takes for granted.”
In its first year, the mobile unit aims to travel more than 72,000 km, covering an area of over 450,000 square km. This will allow people from remote areas to access specialist services they would usually have to travel sometimes thousands of kilometres to reach.
Although Heart of Australia was launched in Toowoomba, the nearby town of Dalby will act as a hub for the south-west Queensland phase of the program.
For more information on the Heart of Australia visit: http://www.heartofaustralia.com
For more information on Kenworth Trucks visit: http://www.kenworth.com.au