Northern beaches Hospital set to be the world’s best
VIDEO: A new Sydney hospital has been described as ‘Disneyland for surgeons’ and comes with state-of-the-art equipment and the best operating theatres ever.
Manly
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NORTHERN Beaches Hospital will have the best operating theatres in the world, according to a peninsula surgeon who said touring the new facilities was like Disneyland for doctors.
Stuart Pincott, a general surgeon at Mona Vale Hospital, said the 14 theatres, with more than $2.5 million worth of fixed equipment, were exceptional.
“This is Disneyland for surgeons,” he said. “We have been working for a long time with old infrastructure on the northern beaches. A new hospital has been promised for 25 years and people are excited now.
“They are driving past it and can see it’s nearly ready. The doctors want to come here and so do the patients.
“They deserve this.
“These are the best theatres in the world at the moment.”
Dr Pincott said the theatres were double the size of Mona Vale Hospital’s.
Most of the equipment, such as anaesthetic gases, will be incorporated in mobile pendants hanging from the ceilings, so there will be no wires to trip over.
The hospital will be able to display or film operations and beam them live to the other side of the world, such as the US, or to elsewhere in the hospital, such as its education department.
The interventional hybrid theatre — to be used mostly by vascular surgeons for complex procedures — will have imaging equipment allowing surgeons to see up-to-the minute scans of a patient during an operation.
There will be a control room where the radiologist will sit safely behind a $10,000 protective lead window.
Mona Vale Hospital anaesthetist Jonothon Brock said even the ventilation system was state-of-the-art, meaning there was improved infection control so it was safer for staff and patients.
Dr Pincott said better ventilation would mean staff would be able to operate on sicker patients than previously.
As well as the hybrid theatre there will be a cardiothoracic theatre where acute heart patients could be treated, a first for the beaches.
“At the moment those who have heart attacks on the northern beaches are shipped out to other hospitals but when the new hospital opens, they will be treated here,” Dr Pincott said. “It will mean they should have a better chance of survival and less chance of suffering damage to the heart.”
As well as 14 theatres there will be two cardiac cath labs — examination rooms with diagnostic imaging equipment to look at arteries and chambers of the heart and treat any artery narrowing or abnormalities — and four procedure rooms, mostly for endoscopy.
Everyone who goes into theatre will find themselves in the 41-bed recovery unit. Dr Pincott said with the large number of theatres it was expected the recovery unit would be pretty full most of the time.
Dr Brock said it was a world away from what they were used to at Mona Vale. “At Mona Vale we have five recovery beds, three of them serviceable,”’ he said.
“Just the recovery unit gives you a sense of scale of how big this will be.”
Manly and Mona Vale hospitals have 360 public beds. The new hospital will have 488 public and private beds.
About 150 surgeons, including ophthalmologists; ear, nose and throat surgeons; cardiologists, neurologists, obstetricians, urologists and anaesthetists will work in the new hospital.
Dr Pincott said patients at Mona Vale were constantly asking questions about it. Their main concern was whether public patients would get the same quality of service as private patients.
“This will be a hospital that provides full care to all public patients,” he said. “They should not have any concerns about missing out.”
Dr Pincott said some of his hernia patients had already asked if they could have their operation put back until after the new hospital opens. And mums-to-be due at the end of October onwards were asking about the maternity services.
He said other questions patients had were over parking and food.
Dr Pincott said he was looking forward to D-Day on October 30 when he would be on duty from 7am.
SCALE OF THE OPERATION
● 14 state-of-the-art operating theatres including an interventional hybrid theatre and cardiothoracic theatre.
● 2 cardiac cath labs.
● 4 procedure rooms mostly for endoscopy services.
● 41-bed recovery unit.
● Sterilising department with $3.5 million worth of equipment. The equipment is “green”, with the washers saving 30 litres of water a load. Over a year, that’s 50 Olympic pools’ worth of water which can water the hospital grounds.
● Anaesthetic service.