Port Macquarie community group No One Fights Alone has donated a $5000 state-of-the-art vital signs monitor to the Mid North Coast Cancer Institute’s Port Macquarie campus as part of a larger project, described as a world-first.

The Coffs Harbour Cancer Institute recently earned two major Health awards for its project, an innovative partnership between the Coffs Coast community and the cancer unit to use technology to integrate its vital signs monitors with an oncology-specific electronic medical records system.

So successful has the project been, the system is now being rolled out at the Port Macquarie Cancer Institute and Grafton, Lismore and Tweed Heads Oncology Units, with other cancer centres and metropolitan hospitals also interested in adopting the technology.

Among the first to help the Port Macquarie campus acquire a new vital signs monitor with wireless capability was No One Fights Alone.

The new monitor is capable of being integrated into a central database using wireless technology to record patient observations, such as blood pressure, pulse rate and respiration.

The monitor is the second to be donated - the first was gifted by the Hastings Cancer Trust. Another six are required.

No One Fights Alone spokesperson Patricia Knudsen said the small group of volunteers was thrilled to be able to contribute to such an important project.

“We really could not have achieved this wonderful donation without the support of the residents of Bellevue Gardens Village, who got together recently for an afternoon tea, A-CUPPA-for-a-CURE, and Bellevue Gardens’ owner, Stockland Retirement Living,” Mrs Knudsen said.

“Everyone at Bellevue Gardens was so happy to support this charity event because they knew every dollar raised would stay in the community to help local people who have a cancer diagnosis.

“To be able to purchase such an important piece of equipment that is integral to this new technological project is a bonus. It’s not every day you can partner in a project that is a world first.”

MNCCI’s Nursing Unit Manager Jenny Baroutis said the new system eliminates transcription errors, improves nursing and clinical efficiency and provides ‘real time’ data to assist doctors in their decision-making.

Importantly, the system also saves valuable time for nurses, who were responsible for transcribing the data and who can now spend that time with their patients.

“We are thrilled this MNCCI-initiated project is now being adopted at other cancer centres, but we wouldn’t be in this position at all had the Coffs Coast community not come on board and funded the monitor component of the project,” Ms Baroutis said.

“Now that we are rolling it out in Port Macquarie, we are hoping our community will also get behind this project to help us replace our older monitors with the new monitors that have wireless connectivity available.

“We can’t thank No One Fights Alone enough for helping us achieve our second monitor. We are underway, and looking forward to every one of our patients benefiting from this technology.”