Bass Coast Health (BCH) is offering more surgery to patients in our community, with two procedures recently performed for the first time at Wonthaggi Hospital.
Our Surgical teams are excited to have commenced shoulder replacements and endoscopic gastric stents in the new, state-of-the-art Theatres at Wonthaggi Hospital.
Orthopaedic Shoulder Surgeon Dr Gayan Padmasekara, who recently joined BCH’s specialist team, completed the total shoulder replacement after a significant amount of planning from our Pre-Admission, Outpatients, Operating Suite and Acute ward teams.
Dr Padmasekara will be operating monthly at Wonthaggi Hospital, specialising in shoulder surgery, including replacement, reconstruction and arthroscopic surgery.
“The Theatres at Wonthaggi are beautiful and brand new, so big and spacious, and the Theatre team is outstanding – skilled, enthusiastic and accommodating,” he said.
“It’s so exciting to be able to bring a greater variety of surgery to the residents of Bass Coast and South Gippsland, closer to their homes, so they don’t have the stress and expense of travelling to other hospitals for surgery, away from the support of their family and friends.”
Dr Anton Rajadurai, one of our longer term Endoscopists, performs the endoscopic gastric stent procedure, which helps patients with gastric strictures (narrowing of the oesophagus) due to benign and malignant disease. This procedure reduces the need for recurrent gastric dilations – the insertion of a large tube into the oesophagus to dilate it.
BCH CEO Jan Child said patients previously had to travel to Melbourne for both the shoulder and gastric stent procedures.
“These surgeries are another step forward in growing our capabilities as a sub-regional health service,” she said.
“Our new Theatres offer modern technology, equivalent to the technology one could expect in large metropolitan health services, which means we can perform more complex procedures.
“Patients seeking surgery at BCH are greeted by friendly and helpful staff, dedicated to making the process as simple, personable and stress-free as possible for them and their carers.”
BCH offers consultations with many medical specialists at Wonthaggi Hospital and also the Phillip Island Health Hub, and provides an extensive range of surgery at Wonthaggi. To learn more, see https://www.basscoasthealth.org.au/specialists/search
Patients wishing to see a specialist at BCH can ask their medical practitioner to fax a referral to the relevant speciality to 03 9102 5307 or email it to Access@basscoasthealth.org.au