Infant apnoea monitoring machine donated by OOR

OPERATION Operating Room (OOR) chair Di Baker said she had no idea infant apnoea monitoring machines, like the one donated to the Maternity Ward of Inverell District Hospital, even existed when she presented it to unit manager Libby Pitman on Wednesday.

“The machine will be used on infants who have to be monitored more closely,” Mrs Baker said.

“It just the last item of equipment out of a long list of items OOR has donated to the maternity ward.”

Mrs Baker said the monitor cost about $1800 and had taken APEX volunteers five months to raise the donation to make to OOR for the equipment.

“Every two months we hold a meeting, look at what we have in the bank and what we can purchase off the ‘wish list’ that suits our criteria,” Mr Baker said.

She said the wish list always contained things on it that OOR could not do.

“There’s always more than what we can do, so that’s a long list,” she said.

Ms Pitman agreed the monitor could be considered as cutting edge equipment.

“We are purchasing the most up-to-date equipment that is used in the Hunter New England Health,” she said.

“They’re trying to standardise a lot of the equipment.

“So we’re getting advice from our midwifery stream on what equipment is being utilised and the most up-to-date, and also that can be serviced and get consumables for fairly readily if there’s a need for repairs.”

Ms Pitman said the monitor would be used for at risk babies, those with breathing disorders, respiratory disorders and jaundiced infants.

“Just so we can monitor more closely,” she said.

“The monitor we’ve got at the moment is about 10-years-old, so this is just making sure we have the most modern equipment for our patient care.”