New beds extend hospital’s ICU

CAPACITY in the intensive care unit at Bendigo Hospital is expanding with the announcement of two new beds for the ward.

The additional beds and associated equipment brings the number of ICU patients that can be managed by the hospital in the unit to eight.

The two news beds were funded with $3.8 million from the State Government and include an extra four new staff members to support the expanded unit.

“This is a very important initiative,” said Member for Bendigo West, Maree Edwards.

“One of those beds is already operational and the second one will be operational early next year.

“We know that there’s been an increase in the number of people being referred to ICU… whether that be though an increase in the number of people we’re seeing with heart attacks or… further trauma as a consequence of accidents or injury.

“We also know that COVID has put a lot of pressure on our health system.

“We have to have increased staff to support the ICU beds.”

Chief operating officer with Bendigo Health David Rosaia said an expanded critical care service at the hospital has been on the agenda for a while.

“It’s been a fantastic opportunity for us to increase our capacity in ICU and it’s been something we’ve been looking for for the last 12 months,” he said.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in our demand for our ICU capabilities.

“Two years ago we increased our cath lab [cardiac catheterisation] to 24/7, so that has actually increased the number of STEMIs [heart attacks] that have come into our organisation. That’s about a 40 per cent increase.

“So that’s important for us to now have the capacity to treat those patients.”