Rural Services

34 Outreach Clinics per month
Clinicians linked to St Vincent’s Hospital, including Visiting Medical Officers and staff specialists, provide an average of 34 outreach clinics per month in various locations throughout NSW. Clinics operate in a wide variety of specialities, with the core areas being palliative care, cancer, neurology, rehabilitation and urology.

Junior medical staff from St Vincent’s Hospital rotate to various rural hospitals, including Wagga Wagga, Armidale and Lismore Base Hospitals, delivering essential support, but also gaining important clinical experience in areas critical to their training.

Cardiology
Interventional cardiologists provide outreach services to cardiac catheterisation laboratories in Wagga Wagga and Tamworth, and an assessment clinic in Armidale.

Electrophysiological Laboratory
Cardiac electrophysiologists also provide outreach pacemaker clinics in Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Tamworth and Armidale.

Education Programs
On the Campus, staff provide education programs and training to rural counterparts, including rural staff rotations through various clinical departments. Sacred Heart, for example, hosts a teleconferencing facility for use in linking with rural health care providers.

Accommodation, Counselling & Transport Services
The St Vincent’s Hospital Social Work Department and the Sisters of Charity Outreach provide accommodation (61 beds in local terrace houses), counselling and transportation services to rural patients and their families and carers.