St George Hospital Trauma Service

St George Hospital is the Level 1 Trauma Centre for South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, and the wider catchment including the Illawarra/Shoalhaven and Murrumbidgee Local Health Networks, in accordance with the NSW State Trauma Plan.

St George Hospital received over 1500 presentations due to serious injury in 2011. These are only a portion of over 60,000 patients that attended our emergency department, one of the busiest in NSW. As a Level 1 Trauma Service, St George Hospital is a Tertiary care facility, we provide all clinical specialties including Trauma Rehabilitation services. Consultation, leadership, research and education bind a Major Trauma Service to its networks, together with an integrated, prospective performance improvement program, which supports excellence in clinical management.

Of the 1500 major trauma patients the St. George Hospital Trauma Team evaluates each year 430 have sustained serious, life-threatening injuries and generally required intensive care, operative and extensive recovery and rehabilitation care (Injury Severity Score greater than 12). In addition to being a major trauma service, St George Hospital was the first hospital in Australia to implement a dedicated admitting trauma team which reduced mortality, and one of the first to incorporate a Trauma Case Management Program which increases efficiency, reduces length of stay, and minimises complications among admitted patients.

Further information on the levels of trauma services can be found at the NSW Institute of Trauma and Injury Management Website: http://www.itim.nsw.gov.au.