COVID-19 shuttle bus takes the win!

L-R: Brendan Mann, Mitchell Tullio, Anne Mok, Alex Pritchard, Carmen Rechbauer, Garth Worboys, Shubjeet Kaur, Dominic Perrottet
HealthShare NSW won the Recovery and Resilience category at last night’s prestigious NSW Premier Awards.

Date published: 30 Nov 2022

Author: Kylie Sammut

Focus on people Collaborate COVID-19 Frontline staff Patient transport service

HealthShare NSW’s Patient Transport Service (PTS) was recognised for their outstanding work in safely transporting COVID-19 patients during the Delta outbreak in the NSW Premier’s Awards 2022.

The Premier’s Awards highlight and celebrate the world-class services delivered by the NSW public sector to the people of NSW.

Speaking after last night’s ceremony, Shubjeet Kaur, Director of PTS, was humbled and proud to see PTS win against such a high calibre of nominations.

“It was amazing to see all the great work done by NSW public sector in 2022 while dealing with a pandemic. Winning this award while competing with so many other outstanding public sector nominations is a proud moment for me and the entire PTS team,” said Shubjeet.

Innovating for success

When the COVID-19 Delta outbreak hit NSW in 2021, PTS partnered with National Patient Transport, the Clinical Excellence Commission and Local Health Districts, to deliver a new model to safely transport discharged COVID-19 patients from hospital to home via a shuttle.

Within 1 week, timeliness of COVID-19 transfers rose from 65 percent to 88 percent, despite an increase in demand of more than 1,000 percent across the system. The result was an improvement in patient flow during the peak of the outbreak, with patients spending less time in hospital.

Brendan Mann, Stakeholder Relations Manager at PTS, said the shuttles were hugely successful at easing the pressure on hospitals during the Delta outbreak. Overall, the team completed more than 16,000 COVID-19 transfers in 2021.

“I remember the moment I realised the impact the shuttle had on tired healthcare workers,” Brendan said.

“A doctor came running out of the Emergency Department and ran straight up to me. The doctor, who was in tears, thanked us for come up with a solution to the pressures they were facing in their ED.”

Coming together in times of need

Garth Worboys, Director of HealthShare’s System Service Delivery praised the efforts of everyone involved in the project.

“The success of these operations wouldn't have been possible without the personal sacrifice of our patient transport officers, managers and nurses who, in a time of great uncertainty, put community needs before their own day after day to help keep us all safe,” said Garth.

Brendan said there were many tense moments and sleepless nights throughout this journey, but also some laughs with the team.

“Thank you to the team for all your hard work, dedication and expertise and congratulations on this achievement,” he added.

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