Unscheduled Care

Remote and Rural A&E departments receive children with injuries that fall somewhere between “treat and transfer” by an appropriate transport team and the children they are happy to ”treat and send home”.
Where patients are transferred to a specialist centres this has an impact on both the child and their carer:

• The unwell child may have to endure a transfer that may take several hours
• Carers may need to arrange child care for siblings at short notice
• Employment implications for parents
• Additional stress for a family

This project aims to develop a telemedicine solution to that can be utilised by staff in remote and rural units to provide real time peer support and review of the patients.  By video linking to an A&E department with staff experienced in the care of children it is anticipated that it will be possible to treat a greater number of children locally, hence avoiding the need to travel to the specialist centre.
For further information, please contact Lorraine Clydesdale.

Members of the Project Board were invited to a workshop to discuss the practical steps of cementing a Telehealth solution on July 6th 2011.