Raising the BARR – Week ending 20 October 2017

Raising the Barr

Good News for Our Local Hospitals

Our 2 local hospitals, Kurri Kurri and Cessnock, are due to get a bit of an upgrade to operating theatres in the coming months.  The operating theatre at Cessnock is currently undergoing some minor renovations and is due to re-open around the time that you read this column.  Following these minor improvements in the current operating theatre, the long unused second operating theatre will be refurbished so that Cessnock, once again, will be using two operating theatres going forward.  This second operating theatre should be up and running by December this year.

This is a wonderful boost to the services and certainty for a local hospital.  But not only that, it will also help to reduce the burden of travel for local patients that need these services and it will also provide additional variety in the skills and experiences of our wonderful hospital staff.  All good news.

Meanwhile, over at Kurri Kurri, their operating theatre will be shut down for around three months for a pretty significant upgrade.  Kurri Kurri hospital operating theatre primarily does work to our eyes, ears, noses and throats.  The shut down and works are expected to extend from December this year until March next year. Listed surgeries expected to be delivered at Kurri Kurri during this time will be transferred to alternate hospitals, which may include the additional Cessnock theatre.  In this sense, the 2 projects at the two sites actually fit hand in hand with each other.

Once all of the work is done, we will be back up and running with 3 separate operating theatres.  These projects are very important to health services across the region.  Our local hospitals help to ease the workload and demands and waiting lists of some of those other “major” hospitals.  Our health system is literally busting at the seams, due largely to a whole bunch of Federal Government argy bargy about what is funded/not-funded, but if the net result is some upgrades to our local services then at the very least, we can welcome that.

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