July 9th 2009
NETS 30 Year Anniversary
On Thursday, 9 July 2009 NSW Minister for Health, the Hon John Della Bosca attended an official event to mark the 30 year birthday of NETS - the Newborn and paediatric Emergency Transport Service; a service which can mean the difference between life or death of a baby or child.
For three decades NETS has been transporting babies and children up to the age of 16 years in need of specialist intensive care using specially equipped ambulances and helicopters as part of a service that is unique to Australia and recognised internationally.
The NETS Team, along with past and present colleagues, friends and former patients and their families filled the ground floor of the NETS Headquarters to celebrate the last three decades which have shaped the service to what it is today.
The NETS staff; a sea of white and blue uniforms looked on proudly in the knowledge that they were that day making history and were truly honoured to be a part of NETS!
There were no words to describe the gratitude of the parents who felt privileged to be among the very people who saved their precious child. These families were so thankful that a service like NETS existed; one they did not know of until they needed them.
Among the families was Angus Campbell-Jones whose son Dan (in 1999 as a newborn) and daughter Maggie (in 2005 at age 10) were retrieved by NETS.
Angus said "without the truly incredible service of NETS, I am frighteningly aware that certainly one or perhaps both of my children would have died because most hospitals do not have access to specialist medical treatment or equipment for children under the age of 16".
Inge and Brendan Gallagher said they were in Canada when Emillie decided to come into the world three months early. They were not only worried about their newborn baby's health but how they would get her home. It was NETS who in 2007 retrieved Emillie and bought the Gallagher's special little girl home, for which they are and always will be very grateful.
In fact over the past 30 years, NETS has responded to 52,536 obstetric, neo-natal and paediatric hospital emergencies, which resulted in more than 38,057 call-outs and transfers of critically ill babies and children up to the age of 16, with another 11,664 problems solved through telephone consultation.