Northern Child Health Network

What is the Northern Child Health Network (NCHN)?

It is one of three paediatric networks in New South Wales, which were established in 2001 by NSW Health in response to the Government Action Plan (GAP) for Health. Each network incorporates metropolitan and rural partners and is based on an assessment of flow patterns for paediatric inpatient care. The NCHN is a collaboration of Hunter New England, Lower Mid North Coast and Northern NSW Local Health Networks Child Health services and is linked to the John Hunter Childrens' Hospital. The NCHN is guided by the NCHN Steering Committee.

Why are Paediatric services in NSW networked?

They are networked to ensure high quality clinical care is available as close as possible to home for all children. The focus is a shared approach to service development with common guidelines for care, accompanied by staff training and development. It clearly links each local paediatric unit with one or two of the specialist Childrens' Hospitals in NSW. The quality of care locally will be improved by the support available from the Childrens' Hospitals, such as:

• specialist clinical outreach services
• shared treatment protocols and guidelines
• staff rotation between services
• professional training and development opportunities
• support in times of peak demand
• smoother transfer and referral of patients between services

NSW Health funds the Child Health Networks and also provides enhancement funding on a biennial basis for new projects.
Networking extends beyond the links between hospitals and includes GPs, private paediatricians, allied health service providers, community health and primary care services, early childhood services and other government and non government agencies responsible for childrens' health and welfare.

What is the Northern Child Health Network doing to achieve the NSW networking objectives?

• Facilitating the sharing of expertise found throughout the network
• Providing training to all professionals that care for the health of children (in or in association with NSW Health) in the form of:
  • Inservice programs held monthly and videoconferenced to other sites
  • Workshops held at various locations
  • Free CD / DVD recordings of John Hunter Children's Hospital (JHCH), Grand Rounds and other inservice programs
• Arranging outreach services at:
  • Armidale
  • Muswellbrook
  • Port Macquarie
  • Tamworth
  • Taree
• Our Surgical Outreach CNC organises clinics and education in:
  • Endocrinology
  • Neurology
  • Respiratory
  • Surgery
• Aiding those who need to apply for NSW Health funding to carry out enhancement projects
• Providing advice to child health professionals who work in or in association with NSW Health by:
  • Publishing a quarterly newsletter and maintaining our web site
  • Compiling a mailing list of child health professionals to keep them informed of funding and educational opportunities.
• Facilitating of staff secondments between rural and metropolitan hospitals
• Sharing information on all Northern Child Health Network Projects

To learn more about the Northern Child Health Network visit their website.