School student among the first patients at new Palmerston Regional Hospital

TAMINMIN High School student and dog attack victim Zar Lynch reckons the new Palmerston Regional Hospital is pretty spiff

Sonia DeVries and Zar Lynch (12), a Taminmin High School student, at the new Palmerston Regional Hospital after he was bitten by a dog. Picture: Keri Megelus

TAMINMIN High School student Zar Lynch loves the new $170 million, 116-bed Palmerston Regional Hospital.

He was more than happy that on the same morning he was attacked and bitten by a dog the Emergency Department doors of the hospital officially opened.

The Bees Creek lad was whisked to the state-of-the-art Palmerston hospital yesterday by mum Sonia in less than 20 minutes for treatment on his wound, more than halving the amount of time it would have taken to get to the busy Royal Darwin Hospital at Tiwi.

Zar was inside the Emergency Department in the good care of a doctor in a matter of minutes after arrival.

Director of Emergency Medicine Dr Dider Palmer talks with MP Warren Snowdon, MP Luke Gosling and Minister for Health Natasha Fyles during the grand opening of Palmerston Regional Hospital on Monday, August 27,2018 Picture: Keri Megelus

“This is definitely much better than having to go to from the rural area to the Royal Darwin Hospital,” Sonia said.

“I am very happy with the hospital. It is very clean, fresh and the staff were so helpful and caring. This is going to be a big benefit for Palmerston and the rural area.”

And the hospital got a big thumbs up from Zar, who will now go down in history as one of the first patients to be treated at the first hospital to open in the Territory in almost 40 years. The unknown first patient arrived at 8am with chest pains before the Emergency Department officially opened. He was immediately treated.

The long-awaited new hospital opened on Monday. Picture: Keri Megelus

Less than two hours after opening its doors, St John Ambulance Patient Transport Services crews delivered their first patient to PRH. Just before 11.45am St John triple-0 emergency medical dispatchers tasked a patient transport services crew to Noonamah to come to the aid of an unwell woman in her early 40s.

She was taken to the new hospital, where she arrived in a stable condition about noon yesterday.

By late afternoon 25 patients had been treated in the PRH Emergency Department. One of the patients was transferred to RDH for further care.