A specialist team from John Hunter Children's Hospital (JHCH) were the first to use the new Medical Wings service through Little Wings, to treat children in Moree with congenital and acquired heart disease.
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Little Wings is a not-for-profit children's charity that provides free ongoing flight and ground transport to children and young people with chronic and complex conditions who require treatment at JHCH.
Medical Wings is a pilot program, sponsored by Newcastle Permanent, which will fly on a monthly basis across NSW.
Moree was the first clinic run through the Medical Wings program, which hopes to support some 300 children over the next year, reaching those who are not only physically distanced from medical treatment but also at high risk due to COVID-19.
"Our goal is to ensure continued medical treatment for seriously ill children during COVID, protecting both them and the wider rural and regional communities from transmission," a spokesperson from Little Wings said.
At the start of this month, JHCH paediatric cardiologist Dr Jascha Kehr and paediatric clinical nurse consultant Helen Stevens were the first team to use the new Medical Wings service through Little Wings.
They travel to Moree regularly to see children with congenital and acquired heart disease.
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There is a cluster of children and young people with rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in the Moree area, primarily affecting Aboriginal children.
RHD, as a consequence of acute rheumatic fever (ARF), is a very serious disease which can lead to permanent damage of one or more of the heart valves. It is a chronic condition that requires regular monitoring and sometimes open heart surgery.
Having the JHCH team fly to Moree through Medical Wings means the clinic can be undertaken in one day, with Dr Kehr and CNC Helen back at work in the hospital the next day.
Previously this would have meant one to two days on the road away from the hospital.
It also means the kids needing this service don't need to travel over 500km to see the cardiology team at the Children's Hospital.