Emalea and Luke Warby spent months after the birth of their 11-month-old daughter Imogen attending hospitals and saying "something's wrong with our baby".
After medical negligence allegedly occurred during her birth at a private hospital, it took six months for Imogen to be diagnosed with quadriplegic cerebral palsy.
"She had a lot of trouble with eating from birth, severe reflux and trouble with her bowel and digestion," Mrs Warby said.
Imogen's parents took her to various public hospitals in the Hunter, where she would often have to wait hours for treatment.
"The system is too stretched," said Mrs Warby, of Cessnock.
"That's not because they don't care. There's not enough staff or resources and too much pressure on the system.
"Unless you are critically ill, they just say to follow up with your GP or paediatrician."
Imogen was eventually diagnosed at six months old through a private neurologist in Sydney.
To ease pressure on the public hospital system, the Minns government has expanded its Healthdirect referral service.
The free, 24-7 telephone health service is staffed by registered nurses.
When Imogen became unwell with a gastro bug, Mrs Warby was worried about dehydration, particularly as she is small and has complex medical conditions.
She called Healthdirect and was referred to VirtualKids.
It's a virtual paediatric service that connects families with specialist nurses and paediatricians.
"They were incredible. Without it, I would have been another person with a baby with a gastro bug," she said.
Within minutes, she was speaking to a nurse who provided instructions on how to give electrolytes to Imogen through her nasogastric tube.
"An hour later they did another video chat where a paediatrician checked her breathing, skin colour and alertness," Mrs Warby said.
"We could keep Imogen at home and not have to take her to hospital."
The family has used the service three times now for Imogen.
VirtualKIDS clinical nurse consultant Jane Staples said Healthdirect was "accessible 24-7".
"VirtualKids is accessible from 8am to 10pm. We do have extended hours," Ms Staples said.
"That's one of the main reasons why our service is so helpful to families, especially in regional areas where it's difficult to get into a GP at short notice."
She said families might "have a concern about their child, but not know where to go".
"For some families in regional NSW, if they can't access their GP at short notice the next option for them is to go to emergency, which definitely might not be required."
She said going to an emergency department can take a lot of time and be difficult for families to juggle.
"Often they actually just need some specialised advice," she said.
"When they come through to VirtualKids, they'll get a one-on-one video call with a paediatric nurse. We're all quite experienced paediatric clinicians.
"We chat with the family about the symptoms the child has. We do a clinical assessment on the video of the child's vital signs and how they're coping with the illness."
The nurses provide advice on "how to care for the child during the illness to keep them safely at home".
"If they do need to see a doctor, we can connect them with either a virtual kids' doctor on a video call, or a service in their local area," Ms Staples said.
Mr and Mrs Warby are devastated about Imogen's birth injuries.
"She was deprived of oxygen and resuscitated at birth," Mrs Warby said.
She is having intensive therapy, which is covered through the NDIS, but the family face medication costs for Imogen of $160 a fortnight as the two drugs she takes are not on the PBS.
"She's making incredible achievements. She is the most determined child. We're hopeful," Mrs Warby said.
"She'll be getting her first pair of prosthetics soon. They go on her ankles to stabilise the legs."
Healthdirect is on 1800 022 222.
