MANNING Hospital has received a life-saving live video system linking local hospital staff and regional clinicians with specialists and doctors in children's hospitals, tertiary neonatal intensive care units and other major regional hospitals.
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The video system is part of a $330,000 grant from the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation in association with Variety the Children's Charity, which will enable the purchase and installation of state-of-the-art, high quality telemedicine video systems in 13 hospitals throughout regional NSW.
Of the $330,000, $25,000 will be used to fund the new system at Manning Hospital.
Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation chairman Michael Slater said the 'Vision for Life' project would provide local families in regional areas like Taree who have a sick or injured child with specialist medical expertise that they could only otherwise access in Newcastle, Sydney or Brisbane.
"This ground-breaking project literally adds vision to and from regional based hospitals to specialists at the John Hunter Children's Hospital where local patients may require emergency specialist medical input or transfer to a specialist hospital," he said.
"This technology becomes pivotal during treatment in what is known as the 'Golden Hour', when actions undertaken can help save a child's life."
John Hunter Children's Hospital director of newborn services, Dr Paul Craven said the guidance of medical specialists using telemedicine systems allowed regional medical teams to deliver life-saving intervention while emergency transport services are dispatched, or to avoid unnecessary medical retrievals.
"Emergency paediatric medicine, particularly neonatal care, is highly specialised and regional areas will now have immediate visual access to the most qualified and experienced doctors using the Vision for Life link," Dr Craven said.
The $330,000 grant from Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation will fund the installation of Vision for Life systems in Mudgee, Orange, Bathurst, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Lismore, Armidale, Gosford, Wyong, Belmont and Singleton as well.