Tweed Valley Hospital’s Cardiology Unit took centre stage recently when the team hosted NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park.
Minister Park toured the new unit at the start of August, keen to find out how it was faring a year since opening.
The Minister heard first-hand of the excellent service the team is building from their first angioplasty patient, 85-year-old Ellen Ganson of Banora Point.
The great-grandmother was excited to return to the hospital to tour the cardiac catheter laboratory, where her operation took place in September 2024, and see how the state-of-the-art equipment enabled the team to check for potential blockages in her blood vessels and provide treatment.
Previously, Ellen had been forced to travel by ambulance to Brisbane for treatment for her heart – a costly exercise in terms of time and resources.
“My heart is manageable now,” she said.
“I do everything the doctors tell me and am going well. I count myself lucky.”
Ellen is one of 1,500 patients cared for by the team in its first year of operation.
Established from scratch as part of the new hospital which opened in May 2024, the Cardiac Unit is focussed on diagnosing and monitoring a wide range of heart conditions affecting residents, who previously had to travel outside of the region for this care.
Under the guidance of Director of Cardiology Dr Martin Sebastian, the team has established a specialist cardiology service with registrars and consultants on-call 24/7.
Services include:
- a new echocardiography service to help with the diagnosis and monitoring of a wide range of heart conditions, with up to 200 studies performed each month
- the hospital’s first cardiac catheter laboratory which opened last September, with diagnostic angiography and now includes planned angioplasty and stent implantation procedures
- an outpatient cardiology clinic operating twice weekly, with patients referred to the service by local cardiologists and General Practitioners (GPs)
- an early access multi-disciplinary heart failure clinic, which commenced this month.
Dr Sebastian said plans were now underway to ramp up services to enable emergency interventional treatment for heart attack patients and to increase outpatient diagnostic cardiology services.
“Cardiology is a fascinating area of medicine. It’s dynamic and constantly evolving. Our team is performing really well and looking to build on our initial success,” he said.
“It’s been an exciting opportunity to build a new Cardiac Unit from scratch, watching it grow into what is fast becoming a flagship service for the Tweed and Byron regions.”
Tweed Valley Hospital’s first angioplasty patient Ellen Ganson of Banora Point (white jacket) chats to NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park (centre) about her experience at the hospital’s new cardiac catheter laboratory. She is joined by members of the hospital’s cardiac team, including (from left) Director of Cardiology Dr Martin Sebastian, Dr Ajay Ghandi, Peter Carter, Adam Reid, Graham Guy, Georgia Nisbett and Payam Sanae.
NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park (far right) toured the Tweed Valley Hospital’s Cardiac Unit. He is pictured here with members of the hospital’s cardiac and senior management teams.
Pictured:
NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park chats to Registered Nurse Georgia Nisbett and cardiac catheter laboratory Nurse Unit Manager Payam Sanae.