Te Awamutu Medical nurse team leader Janet Johnson with the new doppler machine.
A doppler ultrasound machine donated to Te Awamutu Medical Centre by the Rosetown Lions Club last month is already proving to be a valuable tool in the fight against diabetes.
The machine was delivered to the medical centre just before last month’s Covid lockdown and is already playing a big part in the early detection and diagnosis of diabetes. The medical centre’s nurse team leader Janet Johnson told Te Awamutu News that the new equipment was in regular use.
“It is already making the nurses’ job a whole lot easier,” she said. “We are very grateful to the Rosetown Lions for gifting it to us.”
She said one of the team’s doctors had used a similar machine at regular diabetes clinics held in Kihikihi. “When the Lions approached us, we thought it would be brilliant if we had one here at the centre.”
The doppler ultrasound is used to measure the blood flow through blood vessels by bouncing high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) off circulating red blood cells. Diabetic nurses use it to get a more accurate reading on the levels of blood flow to the feet than would be the case by testing manually.
Paula McWha of the Rosetown Lions said that during the last diabetes awareness month, the club asked Te Awamutu Medical Centre if there was something they could donate that would help in their dealings with diabetic patients.
Welcoming the doppler machine to Te Awamutu Medical Centre were, Dr Paul Kennedy, Rosetown Lions members Karen Glew, Jenny Elers and Judy Steel, and diabetic nurses Rachael Hall (acting as the patient) and Trina Garland.
“Our projects committee made that approach in line with Lions International’s ongoing project on diabetes. They came back with a request for the doppler.
It probably cost about $1000, so it wasn’t overly expensive. We got them to choose exactly what they needed,” she said.
The new machine is like a portable scanner and can be moved easily from room to room.
Earlier in the year, the club presented diabetic material to Mahoe Medical.
