More than 1,000 stroke patients in regional and rural areas have received life-saving treatment thanks to the innovative NSW Telestroke Service.
Telestroke provides 24/7 access to stroke diagnosis and treatment, connecting local doctors to specialist stroke physicians via video consultation.
eHealth NSW provides the technology and infrastructure that underpins this vital service. This includes the Statewide Enterprise Imaging Repository (EIR) which provides the Telestroke Neurologists with rapid access to world class multimodal CT brain imaging for each stroke patient.
Nina’s Telestroke story
“Telestroke will save many lives in regional and remote communities,” says patient Nina, a nurse and mother of three from Northern NSW.
In August 2021 at 4.30am, Nina’s arm and leg moved uncontrollably for two minutes. Worried, she asked her husband to drive her straight to Tweed Hospital.
While waiting for her MRI scan results at hospital, Nina became paralysed on her left side and her speech became slurred.
On arrival at the hospital, Nina was determined to be suitable for Telestroke and had a CT scan. Telestroke Neurologist, Dr Carlos Garcia Esperon assessed Nina via videoconferencing and prescribed the appropriate medicine.
“Telestroke is a gamechanger. By 9pm that night I was back to normal,” says Nina.
Nina has fully recovered and is grateful that her life has returned to normal just one month after the stroke.
“I’m passionate about nursing and feel that without the NSW Telestroke Service I would not have been able to return to nursing, which would have broken my heart,” added Nina.
Since its launch in March 2020, sixteen hospitals across regional and rural NSW have connected to the service, which will expand to 23 sites by June 2022.
Implementation of the NSW Telestroke Service is a collaboration between Prince of Wales Hospital, eHealth NSW, the Agency for Clinical Innovation and the Ministry of Health.
More information
Visit the NSW Health website for more about the NSW Telestroke Service.
Information for clinicians is on the Agency for Clinical Innovation website.
