A spinal cord injury profoundly impacts the life of a person with a spinal cord injury and their loved ones. Access to timely acute care and specialised rehabilitation is crucial to quality of life.
Queensland Health is committed to providing personalised, high-quality spinal cord injury care across the lifespan. This can only be achieved by working closely with people with a spinal cord injury, their families, community providers, researchers and other organisations.
Spinal Cord Injury Service Delivery Model for Queensland
This service model will, over time, increase access to specialised spinal cord injury services closer to home and advance research, innovation and excellence to ensure people with a spinal cord injury are provided with the best possible healthcare.
The service model reinforces the role of the Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service to deliver the most complex acute and specialised rehabilitation together with providing leadership to a network of services across Queensland.
Read the service model
Spinal Cord Injury Service Delivery Model for Queensland [PDF 3.4 MB]
A plan to implement the service model, in a phased approach over the next ten years, is in development.
This impact of a spinal cord injury
Each year, around 300 Queenslanders are newly diagnosed with a spinal cord injury. This injury can be traumatic (for example, the result of an accident) or non-traumatic (for example, the result of a degenerative condition or cancer). Just over half of these new diagnoses are non-traumatic and these are increasing due to our ageing population.
Managing a spinal cord injury involves a wide range of health services. These include emergency, trauma and surgical services, intensive care and rehabilitation services. Early access to these services greatly improves long-term outcomes. In addition, there are many services supporting lifelong care in the community to optimise health and wellbeing.
Spinal cord injury service delivery improvements
The development of the spinal cord injury service delivery model complements the work already underway to improve spinal cord injury services. These include:
Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service (QSCIS) Enhancements
The QSCIS Enhancements Project commenced in 2023 as part of the Queensland Government’s investment to provide immediate improvements to the Spinal Injuries Unit. Infrastructure improvements to the Spinal Injuries Unit include additional bathroom facilities and renovations to existing outpatient and therapy spaces. Staffing has been increased, additional equipment purchased and the service is also making improvements to models of care and workforce culture to deliver consistently high-quality care.
Planning is also underway to assess the feasibility of developing a new spinal cord injury unit on the Princess Alexandra Hospital campus.
The co-design process
The service model was led by a co-design process that brought together approximately 300 health staff, consumers, family members, community providers and researchers. It’s over this nine-month co-design period and through more than 30 consultation sessions, that this new service model has been developed.
“Thank you for your involvement in what I see is one of the best co-design processes that I have ever had the pleasure of being involved in. To the clinicians, thank you for being so open and willing to accept the consumer side of the story and involvement in the process. I think it’s led to the production of a well-informed and balanced service model.
Read the Co-design Process and Outcomes Report
Get in touch
If you have questions or you’d like more information about spinal cord injury care improvements, please email statewide_services@health.qld.gov.au
Last updated: 10 June 2024