Findings suggest the Aboriginal Community Antenatal Program and partner agencies areincreasing provision of community based pre-conception and antenatal health services and enhancingcollaboration between a range of health provider agencies, with partnerships between Aboriginal andnon-Aboriginal program staff contributing to an emerging model of community antenatal care.

Patients requiring inter-hospital air transport across large geographical spaces areat significant risk of adverse outcomes. The aims of this study were to examine the charac-teristics of clinical handover conducted by telephone and subsequently transcribed in medicalrecords during the inter-hospital transfer of rural patients, and to identify any deficits of thistelephone clinical handover. A retrospective audit was conducted of transcribed telephone han-dovers (‘patient expect’ calls) occurring with inter-hospital transfers from two rural hospitalsto a metropolitan tertiary hospital of all rural patients (n = 127) between January and June2012. Patient transport between various sites occurred through the Royal Flying Doctor Service.For these hospitals, patient expect calls constituted the only handover record for cliniciansduring the time of patient transport. Information on patient identification stickers relating to patients’ age or gender did not always correspond with details collected during patient expectcalls. The name of a clinician at the receiving hospital authorising the transfer was provided in14 calls (11.1%). It was difficult to determine who made and received calls, and who acceptedresponsibility for patients at the receiving site. Deterioration in a patient’s condition was madein three calls. Actions to be taken after patients’ arrival were included in 24 (19%) calls. Planningwas restricted to identifying who to contact to review instructions. Inconsistent and overuse ofabbreviations was likely to have affected the ability to accurately read back patient informa-tion. Crucial information was missing from calls, which may have contributed to delayed andinappropriate delivery of care.