Virtual chemotherapy helps rural cancer patients

By Grace Nakamura

ABC Southern Qld

Topic: Cancer

Fri 26 Jun 2026 at 6:00am

Tele-oncology is when doctors talk to patients on video. This helps patients in rural areas.

In short:

Some hospitals have tele-oncology units. These units connect to bigger hospitals.

Almost 15,000 tele-oncology appointments happened in 23 health facilities.

What's next?

The president of the Clinical Oncology Society says tele-oncology should be used everywhere.

Donna Gorman had chemotherapy and radiation. She said traveling to the hospital was very hard.

She had to travel a long way to get to the hospital. This was hard for her and her family.

Donna Gorman knows every stop sign and pothole on the way to the hospital.

Donna Gorman says the tele-oncology service at Gatton Hospital has been life-changing.

The trip to the hospital took a whole day. Now, it's much shorter.

When you're not feeling well, traveling is very hard. Tele-oncology helps with this.

Things are better now for cancer patients like Donna Gorman.

Tele-oncology appointments happen in the infusion clinic at Gatton Hospital.

Tele-oncology units help cancer patients get treatment at their local hospitals.

The Gatton unit has been life-changing for Donna Gorman.

She can focus on getting better instead of traveling.

Reaching all corners of Queensland

Tele-oncology started in north Queensland to help patients in rural areas.

Sabe Sabesan is a pioneer of tele-oncology. He's a senior medical oncologist.

Sabe Sabesan is a pioneer of tele-oncology.

He found video conferencing technology in 2006.

He started using it in Mount Isa with nurses and doctors.

Professor Sabesan saw that distance made it hard for patients to get treatment.

Some patients didn't want to fly, so they missed out on treatment.

Tele-oncology evolved to include giving chemo and immunotherapy drugs in rural centers.

Gatton Hospital started tele-oncology services in March 2025.

There's still work to do to make tele-oncology better.

Tele-oncology needs to be a formal system, not just individual projects.

If we had a system, we would have had tele-chemo in Gatton five years ago.

Virtual care checklist

Clinical nurse Chelsey Reynolds runs the tele-oncology unit at Gatton Hospital.

The process is streamlined, but there are many parts to it.

The patient sits in a chair and talks to the oncologist on video.

Chelsey Reynolds is a clinical nurse at Gatton Hospital.

The oncologist reviews the patient's blood and approves treatment.

The pharmacist checks the medication and emails it to the team leader.

The team leader prints it out and the pharmacist dials in on video.

The pharmacist and nurse do double checks before giving the medication.

After the checks, the nurse gives the patient the medication.

Chelsey Reynolds has 13 patients around Gatton and the Lockyer Valley.

Patients can get in and out within an hour or two, instead of a whole day.

The West Moreton Health Foundation got a $100,000 donation for the tele-oncology equipment.

The foundation's CEO says it's improved the quality of life for patients.

There were almost 15,000 tele-oncology consultations across 23 facilities.

Gatton Hospital is a rural hospital that's part of West Moreton Health.

Not every oncology appointment can be done virtually, but it's available to all patients.

Queensland Health is working to improve services.

More time to recover

Patients have saved 2,765 kilometers of travel since the Gatton unit started.

That's like the distance from Gatton to Darwin.

Donna Gorman says her appointments are now much shorter.

Chelsey Reynolds gives Donna Gorman her medication while linked up to Ipswich Hospital.

Donna Gorman can spend more time with her family and go back to work.

It's helped with her anxiety.

She still drives to Ipswich Hospital every six months, but it's not as hard now.

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