Virtual care reaches remote communities when they need it most
WACHS Director of Nursing and Midwifery Kate Reynolds with station manager and mother of two Larissa who explained how virtual care technology eased the stress of her pregnancies.
WA Country Health Service (WACHS) Director of Nursing and Midwifery Kate Reynolds hails from regional WA and knows only too well that WACHS staff must work and think differently to provide services to country communities.
While exploring the Gibb River Road in the state’s far north recently, she was able to hear first-hand how WACHS is providing innovative healthcare to rural and remote families in even the most isolated locations.
Kate stopped in at Ellenbrae, a cattle station covering more than a million acres in the Kimberley and struck up a conversation with station manager Larissa. Larissa shared how both her children - Cody (three) and Flynn (one) had been born while she and her husband Logan had been working on the station which lies approximately 230km west of Kununurra.
Residents on the station often find themselves “flooded in” three months of the year during the wet season, meaning that towns usually accessible by road can only be reached by plane or boat.
“The curious midwife in me asked if she timed her births so they didn’t coincide with the flood-in period,” Kate said.
“Larissa then relayed the tale of having to get to Kununurra to await Cody’s birth at 37 weeks. She was driven through flooded waters in their tractor to the river, then by boat and then another tractor to get to the airstrip to catch the mail plane out.”
“Larissa said she was stressed being pregnant for the first time, especially being flooded in without direct access to care,” Kate added.
Larissa went on to explain how WACHS’s innovative virtual care antenatal classes delivered via telehealth were the only support she had regular access to during pregnancy which made them very special.
Larissa said she and Logan enjoyed being able to interact with the midwives and other pregnant families via videoconferencing technology.
“It was so lovely to hear how we are making a difference, using technology to deliver our services to families in such remote locations,” Kate said.