Looking after children's hearts

Dr Ben Reeves Photo: Stewart McLean, © Newspix / News Ltd

Torres Strait and Cape York children with heart problems have a new champion fighting for them – Dr Ben Reeves.

Dr Reeves is the first full-time paediatric cardiologist at Cairns Base Hospital but is promising to push his services out to the far north’s remote communities. He expects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to occupy a large portion of his patient list.

Indigenous youngsters have about the same rate of congenital heart problems, like holes and valve problems, as the general population but a much higher rate of rheumatic heart disease.

“Among Indigenous people, the incidence (of rheumatic heart disease) is much higher and access to healthcare services is much lower,” Dr Reeves said.

Dr Reeves’ appointment is quite significant for far north Queensland. The region was previously serviced by visiting paediatric cardiologists who came three or four times a year. Children with urgent needs were sent to Brisbane.

Dr Reeves gives Cairns a permanent service. Additionally, he is taking himself to outlying areas, visiting patients rather than having them come all the way to Cairns.

“The issue we have with the (Cape’s) Indigenous population is access,” he said. “They are geographically remote and live in areas with less access to tertiary medical services.” Because of this, they are usually in a worse condition by the time they receive medical help.

This is why Dr Reeves intends to take his service to the patients. In early October, not long after his August arrival, he made his first visits to Bamaga and Thursday Island.

“Hopefully I can go out regularly, to Weipa, Bamaga and Thursday Island,” he said. “In time, I want to go to other communities – Cooktown and so on.”

Dr Reeves grew up in Townsville. He did his internship at Cairns Base Hospital in 1999 before working in Brisbane, the United Kingdom and Fiji.

“I like north Queensland,” he said. “I like the clients and the lifestyle. Medically, the (Cairns) appointment gives me the opportunity to do general paediatric work as well as cardiology.

“I see a clinical need amongst Indigenous people. We have a responsibility to address the shortfall in healthcare (that they face).”

Rheumatic heart disease

RHD is damage to the heart caused by acute rheumatic fever. Basically, the body’s immune system, in fighting a particular type of bacterial infection, damages the heart’s structures. The bacterial infection can be as simple as a sore throat. There is a high rate of the disease in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; RHD is 20 times more common in Indigenous groups than in the Australian population as a whole. Rheumatic heart disease usually occurs during childhood.