Cairns Base Hospital to feature in new ABC Chopper Rescue doco
Published Thursday, 15 March, 2007 at 04:38 PM
Minister for Health
The Honourable Stephen Robertson
Cairns Base Hospital will feature prominently in a documentary to be screened nationally on ABC television towards the end of the year.
The four-part documentary about the lifesaving work of the Queensland Government’s helicopter rescue service is being filmed at The Cairns and Townsville Base Hospitals, with filming in Cairns starting this week.
Acting Health Minister and Member for Cairns Desley Boyle Desley Boyle welcomed the feature role for her home city.
“Not only will this be a fascinating documentary but it will showcase Cairns as not just a tourist destination but also a major health services hub,” Ms Boyle said.
The four half-hour documentary series – called Chopper Rescue –will be edited into two one-hour episodes for the Discovery Channel.
Chopper Rescue writer/director Jan Cattoni said the series focussed on the work of the North Queensland helicopter rescue crews based in Townsville and Cairns.
“We’ll be with the crews – the pilots, paramedics and medical staff - in the helicopters as they head out to retrieve patients from remote or rural facilities or attend accident sites,’’ Ms Cattoni said.
“They do incredible work and a lot of people owe their lives to the work of the rescue helicopters.
“We will film them as they retrieve the patients, bring them to the Cairns or Townsville hospitals and hand them over to the Emergency Department staff at those hospitals.
“We’ll also be focussing on some of the characters in the rescue helicopter crews, looking at their personal lives outside work, asking why they love doing what they do, that sort of thing.’’
Ms Cattoni said the idea for the series had come to her when she was working as a paediatric intensive care nurse at the Mater Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.
While there, she had accompanied the Brisbane-based Queensland Rescue helicopter on a number of patient retrieval missions.
“At first, I marketed the series to the ABC as a look at the work of the Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns helicopter rescue crews,’’ Ms Cattoni said.
“But they came back to me and said they would prefer it if we focussed just on the Townsville and Cairns crews.
“That suited me fine because I’m a North Queenslander anyway – from Ingham – and I was keen to get back to the north for a while.’’
The documentary is being filmed by Brisbane-based Big Island Pictures Pty Ltd and has the support of Emergency Management Queensland and Queensland Health.
The Queensland Rescue helicopter service is a Queensland Government service run by the Department of Emergency Services.
Filming started in mid-February in Townsville and will continue until early May.
The film crews will spend three weeks in Cairns, starting this week, before returning to Townsville for another three weeks and then back to Cairns for the final three weeks of filming.
Editing and post-production will last from early May until October, before the series is ready for national release.
MEDIA CONTACT: Mark Symons 3224 7081
Chopper Rescue Writer/Director Jan Cattoni is available for comment on 0411 484 642.
The four-part documentary about the lifesaving work of the Queensland Government’s helicopter rescue service is being filmed at The Cairns and Townsville Base Hospitals, with filming in Cairns starting this week.
Acting Health Minister and Member for Cairns Desley Boyle Desley Boyle welcomed the feature role for her home city.
“Not only will this be a fascinating documentary but it will showcase Cairns as not just a tourist destination but also a major health services hub,” Ms Boyle said.
The four half-hour documentary series – called Chopper Rescue –will be edited into two one-hour episodes for the Discovery Channel.
Chopper Rescue writer/director Jan Cattoni said the series focussed on the work of the North Queensland helicopter rescue crews based in Townsville and Cairns.
“We’ll be with the crews – the pilots, paramedics and medical staff - in the helicopters as they head out to retrieve patients from remote or rural facilities or attend accident sites,’’ Ms Cattoni said.
“They do incredible work and a lot of people owe their lives to the work of the rescue helicopters.
“We will film them as they retrieve the patients, bring them to the Cairns or Townsville hospitals and hand them over to the Emergency Department staff at those hospitals.
“We’ll also be focussing on some of the characters in the rescue helicopter crews, looking at their personal lives outside work, asking why they love doing what they do, that sort of thing.’’
Ms Cattoni said the idea for the series had come to her when she was working as a paediatric intensive care nurse at the Mater Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.
While there, she had accompanied the Brisbane-based Queensland Rescue helicopter on a number of patient retrieval missions.
“At first, I marketed the series to the ABC as a look at the work of the Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns helicopter rescue crews,’’ Ms Cattoni said.
“But they came back to me and said they would prefer it if we focussed just on the Townsville and Cairns crews.
“That suited me fine because I’m a North Queenslander anyway – from Ingham – and I was keen to get back to the north for a while.’’
The documentary is being filmed by Brisbane-based Big Island Pictures Pty Ltd and has the support of Emergency Management Queensland and Queensland Health.
The Queensland Rescue helicopter service is a Queensland Government service run by the Department of Emergency Services.
Filming started in mid-February in Townsville and will continue until early May.
The film crews will spend three weeks in Cairns, starting this week, before returning to Townsville for another three weeks and then back to Cairns for the final three weeks of filming.
Editing and post-production will last from early May until October, before the series is ready for national release.
MEDIA CONTACT: Mark Symons 3224 7081
Chopper Rescue Writer/Director Jan Cattoni is available for comment on 0411 484 642.