Community Foot Care Hubs

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Initiative Type
Model of Care
Status
Plan
Added
01 November 2023
Last updated
10 April 2024

Summary

Community Foot Care Hubs is a novel innovation aimed at addressing the gap in outcomes for Queenslanders with Diabetic Foot Disease (DFD) through increasing access to multidisciplinary foot care, closer to home in partnership with local healthcare providers.  

Four specialist multidisciplinary foot care teams will be established in Metro South, Metro North, Townsville and Cairns Hospital and Health Services (HHS) to provide access for persons with foot disease in spoke sites. The four hubs have been chosen in alignment with tertiary referral centres for Vascular Surgery, which is a core member of the foot care team.    

Key dates
Jul 2023
Jun 2024
Implementation sites
Metro North, Metro South, Townsville and Cairns HHSs
Partnerships
Aboriginal Community Controlled Health organisations, local healthcare providers, primary care, non-government organisations

Aim

The aim of the project is to strengthen access to care for Queenslanders with foot disease in the community and closer to home through networked evidence-based multidisciplinary models of care and partnerships.

Benefits

Community Foot Care Hubs will:

  • connect non-metropolitan healthcare providers and their patients with multidisciplinary teams located in the Metro South, Metro North, Townsville and Cairns tertiary hospitals 
  • provide a single point of contact to work alongside local healthcare teams who are with the patient, know the community and provide the hands-on interdisciplinary care close to home
  • support local communities to navigate the continuum of care for persons with foot disease across admitted and non-admitted settings, providing streamlined escalation and de-escalation pathways to tertiary hospitals where appropriate
  • be sustainable through its role in building capability and upskilling the rural and remote workforce in preventative foot care, foot disease recognition and management 
  • be co-designed by the local communities to ensure value based care.
     

Background

Diabetes-related foot disease is a leading cause of hospitalisation, amputation, and disability burden in Queensland, which have been shown to be significantly reducible with timely access to quality foot care (see references 1,2). For regional, rural and remote Queenslanders, this specialist advice is not always on hand resulting in significant variation in outcomes of hospitalisation and amputation rates.

Solutions Implemented

In July 2023 the Department of Health (DoH) through the Connecting Community Pathways (CCP) program provided Clinical Excellence Queensland Healthcare Improvement unit with $4.8M investment for the Community Foot Care Hubs
Each hub has received $1.2M investment to plan and implement the local model of care for 2023/24

Evaluation and Results

The project will be evaluated as the Model of Care evolves.

References

  1. Lazzarini PA, Gurr JM, Rogers JR, Schox A, Bergin SM. Diabetes foot disease: the Cinderella of Australian diabetes management? Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. 2012;5(1):24.
  2. Lazzarini PA. The burden of foot disease in inpatient populations [PhD thesis]. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101526/

Further Reading

Diabetic Foot Clinician Resources

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Key contact

Sarah Jensen
Director Podiatry, Metro North HHS
Metro North HHS
073139 4846
HIU@health.qld.gov.au

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