Many years ago I fell off a motorbike while wearing thongs. My foot was a mess. This was mid-afternoon and the young doctor at Mullum Hospital stitched up half of the six-inch laceration but baulked at finishing the job. As Dr Swanson, the Byron surgeon, couldn’t be found I was sent to Lismore Base by ambulance. About 10pm I was finally in theatre with a pain-killing ‘block’ in my spine. I was five days in hospital before the dead flesh turned white, was cut out and then they stitched it up and discharged me. I was told that if the doctor in Mullum had had his way I’d have lost my foot!
Video conferencing has been used by business and the courts for years now and with the NBN will be even better. It’s fast, efficient and cheaper.
I was talking about this with a specialist doctor of many years’ experience just last week who told me that the prestigious St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney runs a ward at Toowoomba Hospital west of Brisbane. A nurse with a TV monitor on a trolley does the rounds of the ward accompanied by a doctor. It’s a very good system with very good results and the patients love it!
The patients of this ward at Toowoomba have far, far better health care as a result of this innovation than they had before, as will we here in Mullum. Bring it on!
Lester Prowse, Huonbrook