A generous family with a love for the bush has donated a million dollars towards a second mobile cardio clinic to provide specialist healthcare services to those who need it most.
Brisbane cardiologist Rolf Gomes pioneered his first 'Heart Bus' in 2014 to treat remote communities across Queensland who were suffering from cardiovascular disease.
The 70 square metre mobile cardio clinic features two consulting rooms, a cardio testing room and houses five to eight staff who reach about 13 towns a fortnight.
Dr Gomes, whose younger brother died due to inadequate medical care in his hometown of Calcutta, said he wanted to extend his city services to those who needed it most.
"It was really about trying to get specialists but also equipment which we use to do our job, like treadmills, ultrasound machines (machines) that you can't fit onto plane out into the region and right onto the doorstep of those communities where these services were lacking and hope to save some lives in the process," he said.
Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death in Australia, with those living further away from a major city more likely to be hospitalised or die from the disease, according to the National Rural Health Alliance Inc.
Dr Gomes said his heart bus had grown to become the "major service provider for cardio care" for those in rural communities.
"Last year the state government referred 353 patients to our service, about 22 per cent were referred from the state public hospitals," he said.
"When it pulls into town and you were to walk into it you would find more services there than what you would find if you were to walk into my city practice.
"If you come in with chest pain, we can listen to your history, we can do the tests on site, whether that is a stress test, an ultrasound, we can make a diagnosis and can get onto the treatment.
"It saves people an enormous amount of travel to and from the city ... on average we save approximately 850km-900km of travel per visit."
Dr Gomes said he decided to build another bus after he was swamped with requests from people in remote communities who wanted the bus to come to their town.
"We have had a lot of regions write to us and ask, 'Can you bring your truck to our town because we face similar issues as an ageing, socially disadvantaged town that could really do with a service like this'," he said.
"A range of other specialists have written to me and said, 'I know you do hearts, but what about livers, what about lungs, what about kidneys?'
"There is no reason we can't bring more specialists out to the regions."
The Queensland government had put up a one-off payment of $250,000 for the first mobile clinic, but after a year spent trying to engage them to help fund a second one, Dr Gomes was feeling "wistful". Then he got a call that nearly knocked him off his chair.
"There was a family who understood the struggles for people living out in the bush who had a connection with the bush who wanted to help and see the service grow," he said.
"They offered us a million dollars to build a second clinic and to help us extend the service to other people who otherwise might die unexpectedly before their time.
"The clinic costs more than a million dollars but a million dollars will certainly put us on the right track to building one."
Queensland Health Clinical Excellence Division deputy-director general Dr John Wakefield said the Queensland government did not "routinely fund" private specialist outreach services operating in rural and remote Queensland.
"An independent economic analysis of Dr Gomes' mobile cardiology service demonstrated that the current public cardiac outreach program delivered by Queensland Health represented better value for money," he said.
"As a result, the Queensland government continues to invest in public specialist outreach services."
The donating family wished to remain anonymous.
The second mobile clinic was expected to launch in the beginning of next year.
Dr Rolf Gomes was featured on ABC's Australian Story at 8pm on Monday night.
