MQ Health’s new Integrated Skin Cancer Clinic brings residents a new approach to detecting and treating one of our deadliest diseases. With GPs working alongside a team of highly skilled skin cancer specialists in a single location, patients can expect fast and effective care.

Training GPs to better tackle skin cancer

An essential part of the skin care program is the further education of GPs around skin cancer. Integrated has set up a GP fellowship program that sees specialists volunteering to train GPs to better detection and management of skin cancers.

Participating GPs are also upskilled in minor routine skin procedures that can be performed in their surgeries, freeing up specialist time for more serious cases. If a patient requires specialist care, they can usually receive it right there and then.

Early days, outstanding results

An Integrated Skin Cancer Clinic has already been established in the Sutherland Shire. “Evidence from our first program assessment shows significantly reduced time from first consultation to treatment,” says Professor Anand Deva, who established the Integrated initiative.

“Across almost 600 patients who visited the Clinic in the shire, the time to definitive diagnosis was around nine days – significantly faster in comparison to traditional pathways to specialist referral where time to definitive treatment was just over six weeks.

“We are also pleased to have had a good response to the multidisciplinary team approach that we think is so important, with 97 per cent of respondents reporting that the integrated service had health care workers working well as a team.”

Professor Deva says that the idea of Integrated Healthcare Clinics is to bring innovation to the health sector. “Private health is becoming more out of reach for Australians because of out-of-pocket expenses,” he says. “So what we’re seeing is a gap in what’s available in public hospitals and what’s affordable in private. Integrated brings public and private operators together in a system that is cost-effective and, importantly, not-for-profit.”

Putting patients first

Australia has the highest rates of non-melanoma skin cancer in the world, with skin cancers ultimately affecting two out of three Australians.

If caught early, prognosis and management are usually good. Yet current treatment pathways and waiting times, in both the public and private sectors, can be convoluted and long. At the new Integrated Skin Cancer Clinic, they’ve established a new model for diagnosing and treating skin cancer with a focus on fast and effective treatment. This model has been working successfully in their partner clinics in the south of Sydney for the past two years.

The Skin Cancer Clinic, co-located with the state-of-the-art Macquarie University Hospital, brings together GPs, skin cancer nurses, plastic surgeons and dermatologists in one location.

The team also has immediate access to pathology, radiology and other diagnostic services, with their link to a network of GPs providing seamless treatment. No referral is necessary.