|
Emergency services are getting less traffic
in regional centres. Image: Caravan World |
by Anne Crawford
In 2000 Victoria’s trauma services started to become more centralised, with increasingly more patients rushed to three major trauma hospitals in Melbourne for treatment.
Under the Victorian State Trauma System (VSTS) preventable road fatalities dropped considerably over time and trauma patient management was vastly improved. Emergency centres around the world now look to Victoria’s system as a model case.
But a study by critical care researchers has found that as the trauma cases drained from regional hospitals to The Alfred, Royal Children’s and Royal Melbourne hospitals, rural clinicians dealing with these patients have become ‘de-skilled’ and less confident in aspects related to care for injured patients.