North Coast Area Health Service Clinical Outreach Program
Funding recipient
North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS)
Project partners
NSW Department of Health
Project achievements
The NCAHS Clinical Outreach Program project upgraded broadband infrastructure and rolled out clinical applications to public hospitals and healthcare facilities in the New South Wales North Coast area. The North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) covers a geographical area of nearly 36 000 square kilometres in the northern coastal region of NSW, extending from Port Macquarie in the south to the Queensland border. NCAHS serves a population of approximately 480 000 people. This project, along with the Greater Western Area Health Service, Greater Southern Area Health Service and Hunter New England Area Health Service Clinical Outreach Programs, cover 90 per cent of the geographic area of New South Wales.
The project upgraded broadband infrastructure in 22 public hospital and health sites across the North Coast area supporting the rollout of innovative health management and diagnostic applications to regional and rural health care facilities. A number of hospitals in this region, including the Ballina, Bellingen, Byron Bay, Casino, Macksville and Port Macquarie district hospitals have benefited from investment in network upgrades and the deployment of innovative e-health applications. These online capabilities have vastly improved the accessibility of patients to timely and high quality treatment.
The Clinical Outreach Program has delivered infrastructure and technology at 22 sites to support the Electronic Medical Record and Critical Care Remote Video Conferencing healthcare applications. These have contributed to a significant improvement in patient care by providing faster diagnosis and have eliminated unnecessary patient travel. They have also contributed to the remote assessment and management of critical care patients in regional and rural New South Wales.
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Funding | |
|---|---|
| Australian Government: | $1 804 770 |
| Other contributions (includes cash & in-kind): | $1 806 850 |
| Total: | $3 611 620 (excluding GST) |
