Abstract / Summary
Abstract Background and aims People who live in regional, rural and remote Australia experience poorer health outcomes, including higher rates of chronic pain than people living in metropolitan areas. People in these regions face unique barriers to accessing care including the need for travel, and lack of local clinician availability. We aimed to explore the experiences of people living in regional, rural and remote Australia in accessing healthcare for their chronic musculoskeletal pain as part of the development phase of the PACE-RURAL programme. Methods One-on-one semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted online with people who had sought care for chronic musculoskeletal pain and lived in regional, rural, or remote areas of Australia. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and inductively analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results were then mapped to the Socioecological Model. Results 24 participants from four Australian states completed interviews. Four themes were constructed during the analytic process: 1. Being rural, regional or remote creates additional barriers to care for chronic pain. 2. Having expert input makes us feel like we matter. 3. Cultural differences exist for people in the country which affects how healthcare is accessed. 4. Telehealth offers a viable way to seek care and reduce travel but barriers to accessing telehealth exist. Conclusion Participants described their lived experiences accessing clinical care for chronic musculoskeletal pain in regional, rural and remote Australia including limited local services, travel burden and the viability of using telehealth. Our findings highlight the multi-level influences likely to shape implementation of new pathways of care in these settings.