HEALTH in rural commun- ities can sometimes take a back seat especially if essential services are hard to access or services are not available in the region.

The Heart of Australia has added more country towns to its life-saving medical itinerary, thanks to its new truck.

The massive HEART 2 mobile medical clinic, launched in August, has doubled the capacity of this Australia-first service that brings city-level life-saving specialist care to the bush.

From January, the two trucks will travel to 16 Queensland towns:

Northern route, serviced by HEART 1: Blackall, Emerald, Barcaldine, Longreach, Winton, Hughenden, Cloncurry, Charters Towers and Moranbah;

Southern route, serviced by HEART 2: Charleville, Roma, Dalby, Stanthorpe, Goondiwindi, St George and Quilpie.

Foundation partner Arrow Energy welcomed the expansion.

"Heart of Australia has proved to be a leap forward in bringing medical care to people outside the major cities - the people in our areas of operations,” Arrow vice-president external relations Leisa Elder said.

"It is addressing an imbalance experienced by people in the bush. We were pleased to help Heart of Australia get off the ground in 2014.

"We've been proud of what it's achieved to date and we're excited about how this new rig will change lives in the Surat and Bowen basins.”

The new HEART-2 rig is built to standard 26m B-double road train measurements, providing additional consultation and testing rooms and a multi-purpose room along with waiting area verandas and a wheelchair access lift.

The first rig was built to offer cardiac and respiratory services.

This new truck reflects how Heart of Australia has expanded during the four years.