Cairns Private Hospital unveils $18m operating suite
A new $18m operating theatre at the Cairns Private Hospital will bring state of the art surgical technology to the Far North, with the potential to take on work from the public hospital.
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Cairns surgeons will be able to operate with high tech, state-of-the-art equipment thanks to an $18m upgrade to the Cairns Private Hospital.
The upgraded operating suite, along with a new pre-operative patient area and a second operating theatre shell to cater for future growth, will be ready for its first patients on Tuesday, July 9.
Cairns Private Hospital medical director Chris Morrey said the new suite, which includes computer displays, integrated light and camera systems, and manoeuvrable equipment would help the Far North step into the future of health technology.
“Part of the upgrade is the integrated Stryker suite (which has) lots of integrated screens,” Dr Morrey said.
“Most people now use computerised practices which enables you to store images and collect data, all of these things which are going to be much better for patient care.”
While the theatre upgrade, which took two years to develop and construct, would benefit patients from the private and public sector, Dr Morrey said it may not help alleviate wait times for elective surgeries.
“The public hospital system is being overrun at the moment and under resourced and there’s a lot of demand,” he said.
“Everyone keeps referring back to Covid and certainly it had an effect, but the system was starting to crumble before then.”
Dr Morrey said the new suite expanded the private hospital’s operating capacity, which in turn allowed them to take on patients from the public sector.
“This allows us, if it’s available, to be able to take on some public hospital work, but at the moment we don’t have the capacity to do that within some specialities because there’s either not enough surgeons or the current surgeons have a large workload,” he said.
“But it does allow us to attract more surgeons to Cairns and in turn, hopefully we’ll be able to deal with increased workloads.”
Cairns Private Hospital chief executive Ben Tooth said he was excited to unveil the new suite. “Getting that additional theatre capacity for us here enables patients to get their procedures done sooner and closer to home,” Mr Tooth said.
“In addition, investment like this is great for the retention of our surgeons and also recruitment of surgeons to the region.
“We know as medical officers, they want the best facilities and equipment when they’re operating.”
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Originally published as Cairns Private Hospital unveils $18m operating suite
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