About Us

Midland Trauma System (MTS)

The Midland Trauma System (MTS) is a network of clinicians in each of the Midland District Health Boards (DHBs) who are supported by an experienced central hub service dedicated to helping trauma patients, their families and the wider community.

The wider team works to ensure that trauma patients receive the best in trauma care regardless of when, where or what trauma occurred. The MTS is the first regional trauma system in New Zealand and is a leader in trauma system development.

Our Vision

The health and wellbeing of our Midland communities will be improved by reducing the burden of trauma.

Our Mission

To improve clinical trauma care, reduce the incidence of injury and enable safer, more efficient systems along the trauma journey

Our Values

Our work will be guided by our beliefs and commitments to our values.

Patients First: The needs of patients guide our actions
Communication: Open, honest, helpful
Collaboration: Together we achieve more
Excellence: Quality care and information
Forward Looking: Integrity, diversity, creativity

Our Region

The Midland region covers an area of 56,728 km2, or 21% of New Zealand’s land mass stretched across the middle of the North Island. It has a population of 951,965 with 241,030 Māori (26%) and 43 local iwi groups. The Midland region is characterised by a mixture of urban and rural, flat and hilly terrain and a wide variety of occupations and activity types with differing risk factors for trauma.

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people living in the Midland region

Trauma is the leading cause of death for New Zealanders under 45 and continues to have a major impact on our Midland communities and health services.

Operational Model

MTS activities integrate multiple functions including clinical expertise, specialised data collection and management, trauma quality improvement, development of standardised clinical guidelines and destination policy, monitoring and benchmarking of trauma quality indicators and outcomes, and advocacy for injury prevention and post-discharge support.

MTS members contribute to national and international bodies engaged in trauma quality improvement, research and injury prevention.

The MTS has the following aims:

Improve the delivery of equitable, high-quality clinical care to trauma patients
Develop, implement and maintain integrated, trauma system infrastructure including workforce and information systems
Support injury prevention and awareness by identifying inequities and groups at risk
Establish a Trauma Quality Improvement Programme (TQIP) to enable evidence-based change that is clinically relevant and cost effective

Our History

2019

2019 Kudos Awards winners

Winner of the 2019 Kudos Science Trust ‘Waikato District Health Board Medical Science’ Award.

2019

MTRC finalists in Kudos Awards

The Midland Trauma Research Centre (MTRC) team is a finalist in the 2019 Kudos Science Trust ‘Waikato District Health Board Medical Science’ Award.

2019

Level 1 trauma certification for Waikato Hospital

Waikato Hospital has been formally recognised as a Level 1 trauma centre, the first in New Zealand. The Trauma Verification program is a leading mechanism for quality improvement and endorsement of international trauma care.

2017

Region wide verification

The Midland region achieved Trauma Verification in 2017 and were the first hospitals to achieve this status in NZ. The trauma verification process is an international accreditation process that has been designed to assist hospitals in the evaluation and improvement of trauma care and provide objective, external review of institutional capability and performance.

2015

Midland Trauma Research Centre

The research centre was established to guide the outputs of the MTS Trauma Registry in order to reduce the burden of trauma in our community.

2015

National Major Trauma Registry

The Major Trauma National Clinical Network commissioned the MTS to host the national trauma registry. The Hub team manage the national and regional trauma registries. The information collected in both these registries allow for detailed analysis of injury events, patient factors, processes in care and outcomes.

2013

Major Trauma Network

Midland Trauma System involved in the establishment of the Major Trauma National Clinical Network (MTNCN).

2010

Midland Trauma System is established

Using the Waikato Trauma Service and Registry as a framework for regional development, MTS was established as a network consisting of skilled clinical personnel in each of the five Midland DHBs.

2006