Healthy Outlook - Sydney Local Health District - NSW Government

CLINICAL GROUPS continued
RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL
CARE SERVICE
Clinical Director: Associate Professor
Paul Torzillo MB, BS, FRACP
The Respiratory and Critical Care Service encompasses
intensive care, anaesthetics, emergency treatment,
respiratory medicine and infectious diseases. The
service has a high national and international
research profile.
Advances in knowledge and technology mean that
patients with severe medical and surgical problems,
which would previously have been incurable, can
now be offered potentially curative therapies.
Our intensive care units offer more sophisticated
and technically demanding treatment, and our
infectious disease departments advise on the control
of hospital-acquired infections as well as the
increasing problem of antibiotic resistance of several
major infectious agents.
Forums were held in CSAHS and Statewide to review
intensive care and emergency medicine practices to
improve efficiency, quality of care and access
problems.
A multi-disciplinary group was formed to address the
needs of CSAHS patients with chronic lung disease
and develop innovative strategies to improve their
quality of life and illness management.
All departments at Royal Prince Alfred and Concord
hospitals spent considerable time planning for their
services to move to new facilities as part of the
Resource Transition Program.
Head of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine
Professor Ann Woolcock was awarded the prestigious
President’s Prize by the European Respiratory Society
in recognition of her continuing contribution to
research in lung disease.
The United States Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
provided $750,000 over three years for research
building on previous work undertaken at RPA
indicating that a single dose of inhaled hypertonic
saline, a concentrated salt solution, significantly
improved lung function in patients with cystic
fibrosis. It was the largest grant outside the United
States from the peak funding body.
Key Indicators 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00
Staff EFT* 643.3 626.2 644.4
Admissions 15,046 14,996 15,024
Same-day admissions 3,791 3,799 4,802
Occasions of service 96,042 89,440 99,848
Admissions via emergency 25,242 25,542 26,004
* equivalent full-time
Respiratory and Critical Care Service
RPA Concord Canterbury
Respiratory Medicine • •
Sleep Disorders • •
Tuberculosis Clinic • • •
22
every member of
the community
receives the same
compassionate
care
Thoracic Surgery
•
Emergency Department • • •
Intensive Care • • •
Anaesthetics • • •
Infectious Diseases • •
Sexually Transmitted Diseases • • •