Video linkup pushes Starship name row aside

By ALAN PERROTT

If creating a network to connect nine disparate hospitals was difficult, figuring out what to call the venue for its launch was a diplomatic nightmare.

Depending on whether you sit on the fence or direct hard stares between the pickets it's the Starship, Starship children's hospital, Starship Children's Department of Auckland City Hospital, or the latest entrant, Starship Children's Services.

Officially the brouhaha over the title was yesterday pushed firmly aside to direct everybody's focus on to the new, interhospital video linkup.

The $400,000 TelePaediatric Service, set up by the Starship Foundation and Telecom, has been eight years in the making and will enable paediatricians from different hospitals to review and formulate instant treatment plans in life-and-death situations.

Telecom NZ has helped with two years of free use and about $225,000 to fund the creation of a dedicated website.

It is hoped the ability to provide an accurate diagnosis over the internet will mean young patients will not have to be flown up and down the country for help.

While the proceedings went ahead without a hitch, the spectre of Auckland District Health Board chairman Wayne Brown and his determination to rename the hospital was as obvious as his absence.

A Starship Foundation spokesman said Mr Brown and board member Vicki Salmon had been invited to the event two weeks ago, but neither had replied or showed.

Seven speakers, based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, lavished praise via video linkup on the system.

If a reference had to be made to the Auckland venue most opted for the neutral Starship. Only Christchurch specialist Dr Michael Sullivan took a deep breath and stuck "children's hospital" on the end.

Health Minister Annette King somehow managed to discuss the network for about five minutes without mentioning the hospital at all.

Even Lucy Lawless, the face of the foundation, had her diplomatic face firmly in place. The fight over whether the Starship is a hospital, department, service or dastardly brandname was on hold.

"This occasion is just about making kids better," said the former Warrior Princess.

She hoped the kids would be made better not only by the live diagnostic video-conferencing, but also through the system's potential for training and multi-venue, real-time brainstorming.

So it was left to the doctors to do the straight talking. One paediatric oncologist worked the room with a firm handshake and an emphatic "I'm Dr Wayne Nicholls from the Starship Children's Hospital".

But it all ended when a 2-year-old put a face to the purpose behind the system.

After collapsing at her Christchurch daycare centre, Courtney Forsey-Milne had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. The tiny blonde is the first New Zealander to benefit from the technology as her treatment was discussed simultaneously in Auckland and Christchurch.

The doctors spoke from screens in medical multisyllables and gazed at brain scans on their laptops as Courtney sat on her granddad's knee happily doodling and banging her jigsaw on the table.