Background and objectives: Rural general practitioners (GPs) are responsible for delivering primary and secondary care to rural populations in Australia. There is limited literature investigating the performance of GP endoscopists. The aim of this study was to investigate the colonoscopy performance of three GP endoscopists in rural Queensland against current Australian quality indicator (QI) standards.
Method: A cross sectional study investigated eligible colonoscopies between January 2018 and February 2021 by three GP endoscopists in three rural hospitals in Queensland, Australia.
Results: A total of 1674 colonoscopies were investigated. The GP endoscopists demonstrated high QI performance, above the recommended benchmarks. Caecal intubation rate, adenoma detection rate, sessile serrated adenoma/polyp detection rate and clinically significant serrated polyp detection rate were 97.9%, 49.5%, 16% and 14.1% respectively. The major colonoscopy-related complications rate was 0.06%.
Discussion: Rural GP endoscopists potentially can deliver safe, high-quality colonoscopy services for rural communities and can have an integral part in facilitating colorectal cancer prevention and treatment in rural communities.