A NEW Ballarat accommodation facility for regional families to use is something Grampians Health will gain with help from the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.<\/p>\n
In 2026, the hospital and the appeal will allocate $3 million in funding to more than 30 regional health services across five regions, with about $600,000 of this going to health services in the Grampians region.<\/p>\n
Victorian Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas this week joined appeal chair Penny Fowler, executive director Rebecca Cowan and hospital CEO Dr Peter Steer in Ballarat to announce the funding.<\/p>\n
Beyond this year, the arrangement \u2013 which started distributing dollars to the regions three years ago \u2013 is set to continue, annually distributing money from the appeal to the regional health services as part of efforts to make it less traumatic and less expensive for regional families of ill children to access the best possible care closer to home.<\/p>\n
In Ballarat, the benefits have been made clear by families like those of Tallulah Nelles-Cribbes, who was only two weeks old when she was rushed to the Ballarat Base Hospital with a serious heart condition.<\/p>\n
Baby Tallulah’s life was saved by Grampians Health medics, assisted by access to a resuscitation cot that had been purchased with appeal dollars. Today the little girl is thriving.<\/p>\n
“The resuscitation cot helped save Tellulah’s life. That’s what your (appeal donation) money does. It takes a family and keeps it a family,” Tallulah’s grateful dad Anthony Cribbes said.<\/p>\n
Grampians Health CEO Dale Fraser said that this year’s appeal dollars will go toward building a new accommodation facility in Ballarat for families from across the region to use for free when their children need care in the Ballarat Base Hospital, as well as training for allied health staff throughout the service region, as well as specialised equipment and diagnostic tools.<\/p>\n
Mr Fraser said work on the new 15 to 20-bed facility is expected to begin this year, with several central sites under consideration.<\/p>\n
“We are doing some additional fundraising as well and hope the first of the units will be complete in 12 months,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A NEW Ballarat accommodation facility for regional families to use is something Grampians Health will gain with help from the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. In 2026, the hospital and the appeal will allocate $3 million in funding to more than 30 regional health services across five regions, with about $600,000 of this going […]<\/p>\n