Win for Kyabram: Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas tours Kyabram District Health Service. Pictured are KDHS chief executive Anne McEvoy, board chair Chris Motton, Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and KDHS director of clinical service Meredith Hodder.
Photo by
Jemma Jones
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas visited Kyabram District Health Service last Thursday afternoon to announce the $4.5 million grant it had received as part of the Regional Health Infrastructure Fund.
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The funding will advance the process of upgrading the existing operating theatre and procedure room and see an expanded sterile services room and developed central sterile services department — improving the safe management of surgical equipment and providing a more efficient workflow.
The visit included a tour of KDHS led by chief executive Anne McEvoy, board chair Chris Motton and director of clinical service Meredith Hodder, which saw Ms Thomas meet the dedicated staff and see the sterile services department.
Grand tour: Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas tours KDHS.
Photo by
Jemma Jones
KDHS currently uses one operating theatre, delivering an average of 119 cases per month.
The upgrades will ensure increased sterile storage space, allowing the procedure room to be properly utilised and workflow to be prioritised, and as a result, significantly reducing elective surgery wait times for Kyabram locals.
Ms McEvoy said the $4.5 million grant would be greatly beneficial to “future-proofing” surgical services in Kyabram and elevating KDHS’s role in the public health system.
“This is the most significant monetary investment to the health service for quite a few years,” Ms McEvoy said.
“We currently use the storage as a procedural room, and our aim is to be able to open it up and to potentially run two operating theatres at once — better storage will allow us the capacity to do so.
“It might take some time, but it is all about flow, infrastructure and efficiencies in theatre, including that we can continue to maintain our infection control standards going forward.”
Welcome boost: Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas speaks with KDHS chief executive Anne McEvoy.
Photo by
Jemma Jones
The visit to KDHS was one of just many stops for Ms Thomas, who was touring regional hospitals and health services that received grants from the RHIF.
“Today, we’ve had an opportunity to see the very real change that our government’s ongoing investment into this health service has made to the facilities, and that the facilities are really quite second to none,” Ms Thomas said.
“That’s important because it helps to attract and retain workforce and ensure that patients have confidence in their local health service.”
Currently, the RHIF has 45 projects across 39 rural and regional health services. The fund is worth $790 million and is financing 675 projects in total.
“We’re really committed to ensuring that Victorians can get the care that they need as close to home as possible, so that means investing in our rural and regional health services, including the smaller regional services like Kyabram,” Ms Thomas said.
