Here’s a project that we have been working on for the last 6 months or so – TWO new blood test machines, for use in our on-site hospital’s emergency department!
Up until now, we have only been able to do a very limited set of bloods tests on a device (called an iSTAT machine). This has been very useful (and will continue to be used), but now with our two extra new machines, we can do a much wider range of tests – in particular we can do a Full Blood Count and CRP (amongst a few other things) – which are really useful in an emergency to help determine the correct diagnosis. Hopefully, this will reduce the number of medical retrievals required from the island, and, in more serious cases, will help to clarify the urgency of the retrieval.
The idea is that these machines will only be used in emergencies (not for routine blood tests – its far to expensive to run lots of tests regularly on these machines, and we still only have a limited range of what we can test on the island).
We have also converted our also x-ray development dark room (we’re all digital now!) into our beautiful new lab.
Lots of people, time and meetings have been involved to get us to this stage –
- A huge thank you to South East Sydney Local Health District who have paid for these machines (and will supply the cartridges required to run the tests on them) – in particular to the new CEO Leisa Rathbone and to Kate Hackett who were very supportive of the proposal
- Also to Gayle Warnock at NSW Pathology who spent a lot of time helping me understand the options and put together the proposal, and then teaching us how to use the machine
- To our new nurse Sharon, who helped me paint the old x-ray image “dark room” and turn it into our new lab!
- And finally… to Jim Fitzgerald – who at 91 years old cracked open his tool box once again and helped us to fix up the lab bench!
Dr Tom Leach – May 2026
