THE new outpatient service at Tamworth hospital will do away with hours of travel for the region’s sick and injured, with boosted telehealth facilities in the new unit.
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One of the final pieces of the $211 million Tamworth redevelopment, each clinic room in the refurbished unit has been fitted with telehealth technology, giving remote patients an opportunity to have a consult from their home or GP’s office.
Hunter New England Health director of rural and regional services Susan Heyman said the digital-initiative was something the service wanted to expand.
“It’s fundamental again to the services we provide. People may live quite a long way from Tamworth and they may come in for an initial appointment and then follow up with telehealth,” Ms Heyman said.
“The cameras are fabulous, they can beam right in and look really closely at people… and it feels like you’re in the same room as the doctor, but you might be at Moree for example.
It feels like you’re in the same room as the doctor, but you might be at Moree
- HNEH director of rural and regional health Susan Heyman
“What we would hope for now with the new clinics building – with the cameras in every room – that we do more of it.”
The outpatient clinic – spread over two floors within the Bruderlin building – offers services including fracture clinic, obstetrics, gynaecology, antenatal, pediatric, community nursing, diabetes, physiotherapy and cardio-respiratory.
“For the first time ever, Tamworth has all our clinics here on one to three floors which is so convenient for the public,” Ms Heyman said.
The redevelopment of Tamworth hospital is now expected to be finally completed in by mid-2017, with works now being carried-out on the orthopaedic ward, an addition to the original scope of the project.
“We decided we could do a little bit more and [the orthopaedic ward is] being refurbished as we speak,” she said.
“All on budget; all on time.”
Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson said putting the “best facilities” in the region was crucial to attracting more specialist medicos and overcoming shortages.
“When you’ve got good facilities, and good staff in those facilities, it allows specialists to take a second look [at Tamworth] and say ‘we want to come’ Mr Anderson said.