The Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC) is delighted to announce the new ‘Trauma Connect’ collaboration with Townsville Hospital and Health Service. This three-year arrangement aims to enhance trauma care across acute, rehabilitation, and post-discharge phases of care for the widespread and culturally diverse communities of North Queensland.
MAIC’s funding will support the creation and piloting of three crucial roles: a Trauma Fellow, Trauma Clinical Nurse Consultant, and a Trauma Nurse Navigator, with each dividing their time between clinical practice and research.
Townsville University Hospital (TUH) is the sole major trauma centre for adults and children outside South-East Queensland, catering to an approximate population of 800,000 across an area of roughly 800,000m2.
Despite offering a variety of critical services such as paediatric intensive care, retrieval services, and specialist rehabilitation, TUH faces challenges in trauma care due to a high proportion of major trauma cases arriving from inter-hospital transfers, and a scarcity of region-specific data to gauge service delivery impacts and patient outcomes.
The Trauma Connect pilot will enhance trauma care, translating valuable research findings into practice. With road trauma a leading cause of trauma admittance, this collaboration has the potential to enhance the rehabilitation of claimants/participants within both the Queensland CTP and NIISQ schemes into the future.