NETS – Newborn & Pædiatric Emergency Transport Service

Moving Intensive Care for Kids

ZOOM Productions is passionate about proffering our skills and services to help charities and non-profit organisations.

‘NETS’ is the statewide emergency service for medical retrieval of critically ill newborns, infants and children in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. NETS provides advice to hospitals requesting transport of a patient too sick for care to continue in that hospital.The philosophy of the organisation is summarised by NETS’ ‘tagline’; ‘moving intensive care for kids’. NETS brings clinicians together by conference call to discuss acute problems and plan their solution.

NETS is an acronym previously signifying the “Newborn Emergency Transport Service”. However, since 1995, NETS’ responsibilities increased to include the emergency medical retrieval of infants beyond the neonatal period and also older children. Therefore it is now known as the ‘Newborn & pædiatric Emergency Transport Service’.

NETS is contacted when a baby or child needs (or is at risk of needing) intensive care and this form of treatment is not available at the hospital in which they are being treated. Only three hospitals in the state of NSW are able to treat the sickest children (two Children’s Hospitals in Sydney and the John Hunter Children’s Hospital in Newcastle). Another seven provide medical intensive care for newborn babies. All of these hospitals are in major metropolitan areas. Some referring hospitals are closer to interstate teaching hospitals and NETS coordinates the link with services in those hospitals.

The Shoot

ZOOM Productions was commissioned to take high quality shots of the NETS staff and equipment with the intention to refresh their dated image library. The images were to be used on the website and across other charity collateral.

We began the shoot by capturing images of the aircraft hangar.

We then took some shots of the admirable staff in action.

Inside the plane, ambulance and chopper.

We took some staff portraits too, to give credit to the talented men and women that save the lives of countless Australian children every year.

Suddenly, NETS received a call out to an emergency.

The helicopter and equipment is rapidly prepared and we depart the NETS HQ on an emergency call to a young boy with kidney failure.

We arrive at the regional hospital where the sick child is urgently awaiting a transfer.

The brave patient is carefully loaded into the emergency helicopter.

We take off with our patient comfortable and secured. The nurses constantly monitor the boy’s condition.

After an hour long journey, the team arrive with the sick patient at the specialist Children’s Hospital in Sydney. Infants and children up to the age of 16 years are referred to NETS for critical care transport to paediatric intensive care (pICU) or an Emergency Department (ED) in a children’s hospital. There are three children’s hospitals in NSW; two in Sydney and one in Newcastle. Patients close to the state borders may preferably be transferred to children’s hospitals in Victoria, Queensland or South Australia.

The young patient received the best possible care for his critical condition and his life was saved thanks to the time and talent of the entire NETS organisation.