Emergency Department

Royal Perth Hospital is one of Australia's largest and busiest hospitals and the Emergency Department is one of the busiest in Australasia.

It has the second largest trauma workload in the country, with more than 54,000 presentations a year.

Trauma

Royal Perth Hospital is the designated major trauma service provider in Western Australia, treating 411 major trauma patients (ISS>15) in 2005. This number continues to grow steadily each year.

Both primary and secondary trauma cases are assessed in the Emergency Department, with the trauma team comprised of an Emergency Medicine consultant, registrar and two RMOs (Resident Medical Officers). There is excellent senior cover for supervision and advice in the department by consultants who have considerable trauma experience. The hospital trauma response is usually led by the Trauma fellow or surgical registrar.

There is access to a state-of-the-art 64-slice CT scanner in the Emergency Department, and world class interventional radiology services.

Royal Perth Hospital has a 24-bed Intensive Care Unit. The hospital also houses the State Adult Spinal and Burns units, and has large busy orthopaedic and plastic surgery services to match these demands. These specialties also provide for the large volume of more minor trauma the department manages. A new combined burns / trauma ward, as well as expanded multidisciplinary services are expected to improve and streamline patients’ care and outcomes.

There is ample opportunity for research using the large trauma data base which is managed by the Trauma services with support available from within Emergency Department.

The majority of trauma education is gained at the bedside by the Emergency Physician involved with each case. There are also monthly hospital Trauma Grand Rounds, as well as regular QA activities (mortality and morbidity, and missed injury audits). Surgical Skills workshops are regularly held in conjunction with the Director of Trauma in order to establish and maintain necessary procedural competence required in the management of the critically injured.

The department is also actively involved in preventative health strategies with the commencement of the PARTY program (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) by Dr Monica Gope.

Following the announcement by the State Government in November 2004 to designate RPH as the Adult State Major Trauma Centre, there are significant opportunities for involvement in the management of major trauma.