STAFF at Ballarat Base Hospital received a visit from Minister for Health Infrastructure, Mary-Anne Thomas earlier this week, who announced the arrival of new equipment.<\/p>\n
Seven new anaesthesia machines and accompanying monitoring devices are on the way for the health service, which Ms Thomas said will be a boost for surgeries in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cA health service like Ballarat\u2026 plays a critical role in helping us meet our targets,\u201d she said. \u201cPart of delivering that is in ensuring the equipment available in our hospitals is fit for purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The new machines are] important because\u2026 we have had equipment failure sometimes as a cause for cancellation. Investing in this means we can be much more certain the surgeries that are planned will be able to go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new equipment has been funded with more than $916,000 as part of the eighth round of the State Government\u2019s Regional Health Infrastructure Fund.<\/p>\n
Established in 2016, the program has since paid for $790 million worth of upgrades to hospitals in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n
Of the new anaesthetic equipment, one will be located at Ballarat Base Hospital\u2019s catheter laboratory while the remaining will be in the operating theatre suites.<\/p>\n
The health service\u2019s director of anaesthetics Greg Henderson said the new machines are another step forward for their operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just allows us to be more able to deliver a variety of types of anaesthesia and better anaesthesia for more challenging patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been moving into robotic surgery which does cause more stress on patients physiologically\u2026 and we\u2019re doing a lot more progressive surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt allows us to safely transfer patients through the hospital much more easily because the modules on those machines can actually be removed and transferred from one area to another instantaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STAFF at Ballarat Base Hospital received a visit from Minister for Health Infrastructure, Mary-Anne Thomas earlier this week, who announced the arrival of new equipment. Seven new anaesthesia machines and accompanying monitoring devices are on the way for the health service, which Ms Thomas said will be a boost for surgeries in the region. \u201cA […]<\/p>\n