title: Outreach surgical consulting services in North East Victoria.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is a paucity of data regarding the provision of consultative outreach specialist surgical services to rural areas. This paper aims to describe a model of outreach consultative practice to deliver specialist surgical services to rural communities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of prospectively collected data for consultations in a three month period for two surgeons based in Wangaratta.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two surgeons in regional Victoria based in Wangaratta, North East Victoria, conducting outreach consultations to Beechworth, Benalla, Bright and Mansfield.
  
  
  METHODS
  All patients seen in consultations over a 3-month period.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patient workload, casemix of presenting complaint, consultation outcome including plan for surgical procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Outreach surgical consulting was associated with a higher proportion of new consultations, and there was trend towards being more likely to result in a surgical procedure than consultations in the base rural centre.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Outreach surgical consulting provides surgeons with a larger referral base and provides communities with better access to local specialists. Outreach practice should be encouraged for surgeons in regional centres.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Northeast Health Wangaratta, Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Timothy John
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Chittleborough
authors.forename: Kaleb
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lourensz
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Franzi
mesh_terms: D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019035:Rural Health Services; D014739:Victoria
keywords: outreach surgery; rural surgery