Trauma Unit - Research Fund

Click here to return to SWSAHS Home Page

From the Department

We are pleased to share with you the launch of the Trauma and Injury Research Fund of the Department of Trauma and Injury at Liverpool Hospital. The Trauma department has been working since 1988 to establish a centre of excellence in Trauma and Injury Care in South Western Sydney.

We hope that the Trauma and Injury Research Fund will facilitate the development of Trauma Care throughout the region. In the last eight years the Department has significantly increased its research and education activities, with minimal funding. Because of lack of funding many of our current projects exist on a knife edge from month to month. We would not have been able to get to our current stage of development without the commitment of the staff and the support of key organisations, including the Department of Health, Motor Accident Authority and the South Western Sydney Area Health Service.

We now need your help to maintain the strong foundation that we have laid.

Objectives of the Trauma Injury and Research Fund

Provide funding for Trauma Injury Research in South Western Sydney
Encourage the development of educational activities in Trauma and Injury

Benefits of Trauma and Injury Research Fund

Improve the care of injured patients in South West Sydney and Australia.
Identify new treatments for injuries to major organs.
Allow a quality assurance check on the level of care trauma patients receive.
Increase the level of knowledge of the providers of trauma care in the region.

The Challenge

There is an epidemic of Injury in South Western Sydney, with over 4,000 Trauma Admissions to the hospitals in our region each year. South Western Sydney now sees one of the largest number of trauma patients in New South Wales and probably in Australia. In a twelve month period from April 1994 to March 1995 there were 7,244 injury cases transported by ambulance to hospitals in South Western Sydney. In addition there was a large number brought by private transport. Trauma and Injury is one of the biggest causes of admission to hospitals each year in the South West.

Between 1995 and 2002, 40,000 patients were admitted with a diagnosis of trauma to 6 South Western Sydney receiving hospitals, Bankstown, Bowral, Camden, Campbelltown, Fairfield and Liverpool.

The community is entitled to receive the best possible care. This can be achieved only through critical evaluation of the level of care supplied, and outcome based analysis of patient treatment. The launch of the Trauma Injury and Research Fund now provides you with the opportunity to contribute to this.

We hope that through the generosity and vision of the community in the South West we can provide you with the best trauma and injury treatment in the world.

Function of the Trauma and Injury Department

The Department facilitates the care of Trauma and Injury victims throughout South Western Sydney. This is accomplished through communication, education, and support of services not just within Liverpool Hospital but also at Bankstown, Bowral, Camden, Campbelltown and Fairfield.

The New South Wales Trauma Plan introduced in 1992 by the Department of Health allows more seriously injured patients to be transported to the major trauma hospitals. Liverpool Hospital is the Major Trauma Service for South Western Sydney.

At Liverpool Hospital there are many different departments involved in the care of the injured patient, and their integration to provide the optimum patient treatment is the prime function of the Department. The pathways involved in the care of the injured are shown below. The Trauma and Injury Department ensures that all the key players in trauma care are satisfied with the trauma system. In turn the unit has specific standards (performance indicators), which it measures during the treatment of the injured patient.

Vital to maintaining standards of Trauma Care is continuing Trauma and Injury education. Our Department has established a comprehensive Area-wide education program, involving medical, nursing, and para-medical staff in all hospitals in South Western Sydney. The people of the South West, have had the opportunity to increase their awareness of trauma injury and the treatment at our first public forum on injury on November 7th, 1996.

To give you an overview of the nature of trauma and injury in South Western Sydney a number of simple but important statistics are given in the accompanying graphs. Trauma is one of the leading causes of death in young males in Australia. Injury accounts for 15% of emergency admissions to Liverpool Hospital.