Staff from the successful Cape York Kidney Care team: nurse practitioner Kimberley Withers, dietitian Kaylah Schroeter, Dr Natalie Pink and program manager Natasha Wellby. Photo: Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service.
The findings are in – the Cape York Kidney Care (CYKC) team’s dialysis results and the region’s fight against serious kidney disease are clear for all to see.
Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS) Dr Natalie Pink presented the data during the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service Research Symposium on Friday, 12 September.
The study found the number of patients starting dialysis in the Western Cape had more than halved since the start of the CYKC service in 2020.
The Weipa-based clinicians deliver culturally centred kidney care to residents in six communities of the Western Cape region.
The CYKC team is made up of a rural generalist doctor, renal nurse practitioner, dietitian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health worker. They currently see about 400 patients across six communities – Aurukun, Pormpuraaw, Kowanyama, Napranum, Weipa and Mapoon.
Tertiary-based nephrologist, Dr Janelle Prunster supports the team remotely.
Dr Pink, a proud Nyikina woman, said the team’s unique transdisciplinary model, focusing on cultural safety and relationship building through clinical yarning, was a key driver to success.
“This service has been built on engagement with community members and key stakeholders about ways of delivering this service, so we have really good engagement and outcomes,” she said.
“We try and create a safe space where we can sit and yarn with the patient, talk about their life stories which gives comfort to open up about their health journey.
“It is often about us learning from their life experience, culture and knowledge of traditional ways of knowing and doing, rather than the other way around.”
The study found almost 40 people in the region from 2016 to 2019 started dialysis, compared to 18 since the CYKC program began.
Dr Pink said team members had been able to engage with patients on a downward trajectory with their kidney function and stabilise their condition.
The team travels to each community regularly throughout the year and Dr Pink is hopeful the program will expand to other regions of the Cape.
TCHHS executive director Medical Services Dr Marlow Coates said the program had been incredibly successful since its inception.
“As a health service we are focused on closing the gap and programs such as Cape York Kidney Care are a key way we can achieve this,” he said.
“The way this team has partnered with their communities to develop a culturally safe model which increases community engagement is fundamental in our region.”
