Community
20 November, 2024
Royal Flying Doctor Service welcomes Glencore equipment donation
A couple of critical pieces of equipment have been donated by the mining company.
Mount Isa’s Royal Flying Doctor Service nurse unit manager says the donation of medical equipment for use in the North West will make an immediate difference.
Jamie-Lee McCall said the gifts from Glencore are already being put to use on Outback retrievals.
“We received a lovely donation from Glencore that will help us greatly,” she said.
“They donated a MEQU blood warmer; it’s a rapid-warming piece of equipment that we can take when we retrieve trauma patients that have lost lots of fluid that need warming up quite quickly.
“It’s portable, it’s lightweight, runs on batteries and it’s easy to use ... it heats up the fluid quite rapidly.”
The warming device can also be used on IV fluids.
The mining company also gave the Royal Flying Doctor Service an i-STAT blood analyser.
“This is a great bit of tech because we can’t travel with a big computerised pathology lab,” Ms McCall said.
“It’s lightweight as well, and it can give you a result within two to three minutes from a small bit of blood.
“It’s valuable because you can tell if people have haemorrhaged or we can see what their electrolytes are doing – if they need fluid hydration – and also, if people are having heart attacks, we’re able to make that assessment with that small piece of equipment.”
Ms McCall, who has been with the RFDS for four years, said the support of Glencore was much appreciated.
“These are things that will help save lives and make our job that little bit easier. We really appreciate the donation and can’t thank Glencore enough,” she said.