FRONT-LINE health workers across Australia and indeed the world have stepped up during the pandemic and done an amazing job in exceptionally difficult circumstances.
While the Limestone Coast has been spared from much of what we’ve seen in Sydney and Melbourne’s COVID outbreaks, our local health network has continued to punch above its weight during the pandemic delivering exceptionally high levels of patient care, deserving of public acknowledgment.
The orthopaedic services offered at the Mount Gambier Hospital highlight this care and give piece of mind that, like other services offered at the Mount Gambier Hospital, if we need orthopaedic services we are in exceptionally good hands.
In the first six months of the 2021 the Mount Gambier hospital welcomed more orthopaedic inpatient admissions with less complications than at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, one of Adelaide’s major public hospitals with over 300 beds servicing a population of more than 250,000 in Adelaide’s western suburbs.
More admissions, fewer complications and all done at a lower staffing level.
In fact, while the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s orthopaedic department operates with the benefit of three accredited trainees, three service registrars, two residents and three interns the Mount Gambier Hospital manages with two local specialists and a single service registrar.
While regional health services sometimes struggle to service patients living outside metropolitan areas because State Government resources are concentrated to high population areas, we should be incredibly proud of the breadth and quality of care provided to the Limestone Coast community by the staff at the Mount Gambier Hospital.
Without question Australia has one of the best health care systems in the world and while this doesn’t translate to perfection and we should and indeed will always strive for improvement, we are incredibly blessed to have access to such quality public health care here in the Limestone Coast.
These outcomes are attributable to the professionalism and dedication of staff at the Mount Gambier Hospital as well as that of those engaged in our broader health and allied health services.
The pandemic has brought into sharp focus the importance of these services, services which do great credit to those involved and for which we should all be incredibly grateful.
Tony Pasin
Member for Barker
