Arrowe Park Hospital - ECG Machine

UPDATE:  This equipment was delivered in August 2007.

The new Children’s Assessment and Treatment service at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral opened in 2006, and can treat upwards of 16,000 children each year. The NHS Trust has provided all staffing and essential equipment, but the nursing team are keen to ensure that the best equipment is readily available at all times for children on the unit.

In the adult world, ECG machines within an A&E department are predominantly used to diagnose heart attacks. This is an incredibly rare occurrence in children so ECG machines are used less commonly than in adults. However they are an important tool in terms of looking for cardiac problems in a given set of symptoms.

ECGs in children and young people are not a routine investigation in the A&E setting. However given particular symptoms, the information from an ECG could provide a lifesaving diagnosis. In numeric terms, the machine would probably not be used more than perhaps once or twice every couple of days, but where it is used it could make all the difference.

The ECG Machine costs £4,192.50. As a charity we do not pay VAT on medical items.