A medical practitioner before entering politics, Dr Hames and the hospital's emergency department nurses, including Di Dixon who had to pretend to be a patient suffering an acute asthma attack, took part in the demonstration.
It linked them with emergency specialist Bob Graydon in Perth.
Using the ETS high-definition video link Dr Grayden supervised Dr Hames and two nurses as they assessed and treated their patient.
Watching with Dr Graydon was Wheatbelt farmer Peter Ralston who Dr Graydon helped save using the ETS last year when he suffered two cardiac arrests at Cunderdin Hospital.
After the demonstration Dr Hames announced the government planned to expand the ETS links by 2015 to almost all WA Country Health Service hospitals, from the present 28 Wheatbelt hospitals.
The Goldfields region was the next to receive ETS links, Dr Hames said.
During the next five years the government plans to invest $36.5 million in Telehealth technology, including equipment upgrades, as a key part of its $565m Southern Inland Health Initiative, funded through Royalties for Regions.
In August last year the project started as a pilot in eight Wheatbelt hospitals and had since expanded to 28 sites with more than 4500 patients examined and treated via ETS.
"The early involvement of emergency specialists in the care of very unwell patients has proven invaluable in terms of early treatment, better patient outcomes and critical support for front-line clinicians, such as nursing staff in remote hospitals," Dr Hames said.
"In many cases, im proved access to specialists within their own communities reduces the need for patients to travel to the metropolitan area or other major regions, which also lessens the burden placed on these patients when they are away from their home towns," he said.
"The ETS is also having a positive impact on front-line clinicians in remote locations, who are often working in isolation, managing complex emergency presentations.
"It enables the specialist and clinicians to work together on cases which provides support and also real-time training."
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Quelle/Source: Merredin Wheatbelt Mercury, 17.12.2013
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