Queensland Children's Hospital

The Queensland Children's Hospital is a public children's hospital in Stanley Street, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Opened on 29 November 2014, it is the single specialist paediatric hospital for Queensland

The electronic medical records of Queensland Children's Hospital patients with central nervous system tumors between the 17/12/2014 till 11/12/2019 were retrospectively accessed. Time intervals of symptom onset to first medical review,location, time till medical imaging,subspecialty or neurosurgical review, timing of surgery, diagnosis and mortality status were recorded then analysed.

Results: A total of 168 patients were included. Mean age to 7.5, 65% male, with pilocytic astrocytoma representing 31%. 71.4% of the population were from a major city as determined by Remoteness Area classification, ABS, with 19% inner regional and 9.5% being outer regional and remote. The average time from first medical review to diagnostic imaging was significantly different when comparing remoteness classification (p = 0.044). There was also a statistically significant difference in the duration of time from medical imaging to specialist review comparing major city and outer regional/remote (p = 0.016) and inner regional versus outer regional/remote areas (p = 0.026).

Delays in imaging in outer regional and remote Queensland are contributing to a delay in diagnosis and intervention in pediatric brain tumors. Service provision for neurosurgery in outer regional and remote Queensland is currently on par with inner regional and city areas. Suspicion of paediatric brain tumours is needed with clear referral pathways for general practitioners to access diagnostic imaging ¹⁾.