MILLICENT and District Hospital theatre patients will be able to put their feet up following the donation of three state of the art reclining chairs by two local community groups.
A $11,000 co-contribution between the Millicent Cancer Support Group and the Live and Learn Craft Group has seen the hospital purchase three fully extendable transportable chairs for the theatre’s waiting room.
Millicent Cancer Support Group secretary Karen Duncan said the donation was a result of a successful fundraising drive and local donations to the community charity.
“It began with the cancer support group having funds available and wanting to do something for the hospital,” she said.
“The hospital provided us a wish list of items and we decided to allocate a certain amount of funds to the chairs.
“A lot of our members are also members of the craft group, so we approached them to see if they were interested in co-contributing to the chairs.”
Live and Learn Craft Group treasurer Sue Correll said the group was happy to donate to the cause.
“We have done quite a lot of donating to the hospital and Sheoak Lodge since we started the group,” she said.
“It’s a good cause and it’s something that we are able to help out with.”
Hospital theatre manager Caroline Dower said the manual chairs, which replace the former electronic chairs, would increase patient comfort while recovering or waiting for treatment.
“Our old chairs were electric which meant some of our theatre patients that are under anesthetic as part of their operation had difficulty using them.
“These new chairs are easier for patients who have manual chairs at home to use because they are similar.
“These chairs are able to hold a lot of weight so if there is a medical emergency, we can drop the chairs and provide life saving care and CPR if it is needed.
“We do a huge amount of early cancer detection at the hospital and the sad reality of cancer detection is some people are told they have cancer in the waiting room.
“That is why things like comfort is really important and these chairs will help.”
Ms Dower said the electric chairs would be moved to the theatre’s holding bay.
“We are very lucky we have been able to use the older chairs in another location,” she said.
“We continue to be really busy in the theatre and continue to have a lot of surgeons come through so all the chairs will get a lot of use.”
