2013 at a glance Looking forward to a big 2013! Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope it brings everything you wish for. On the hospitals front, we have plenty coming up. Here’s a glimpse:

At The Valley:

� 4 new theatres at end of January

� Refurbished current theatres by Easter

� Modernising of exterior

� New 30 bed ward by Easter

� EOS low dose weight bearing 3D imaging system early February (and co-located with a doctors lounge in the Churchill suites)

� Laser for urology

� 30 degree fitting for the 3D camera in February

� Plans prepared for new consulting

building, additional beds and theatres soon. We would also extend car parking with these developments.

� New services including pain management, extension to neurosurgery services, EPS in cardiology, brachytherapy

� New Centres – Murmur and Chest Pain, and under development – Pelvic Floor Clinic

At South Eastern:

� plans are being prepared to extend the rehabilitation ward by 20 beds and to extend chemotherapy.

The Eastlink extension which by-passes Frankston will bring the Mornington Peninsula closer to our Emergency Department and consolidates our position as arguably the best located private hospital in Victoria, sitting on a

catchment larger than the city of Adelaide. No time to catch our breath as there is plenty of work to do! I hope to catch up with everyone during the year, and please feel free to drop by. We also have the tennis, grand prix and footy coming up for VMOs, and don’t forget the Chairman’s wine – it’s getting excellent reviews. Neil Henderson, CEO

Quick thinking - from heart attack to good as gold When a person suffers a heart attack (myocardial infarction), the heart muscle suffers trauma from a lack in blood supply. If the blood supply to the heart isn’t restored the heart muscle will die. The aim of treatment is to restore blood flow to the affected area of the heart as soon as possible. This is done by inserting a stent (a small tube that hold open the blood vessel) into the blood vessel to allow the blood to flow freely again.

For Terence Doyle from Gippsland it was a rough start to 2013 but he now thinks he is the “luckiest patient in The Valley Private Hospital”. Arriving at his local GP clinic around 5pm on January 2nd with chest pains and feeling generally unwell, his local practitioner, Dr Fernando was quick to identify that Mr Doyle was having a heart attack. After some quick tests Mr Doyle found himself in an ambulance and on his way to The Valley Private Hospital in Mulgrave. On his arrival he was greeted by the Emergency Department staff who took him directly to the Coronary Care Unit for

his pre-op work up. By 8pm Mr Doyle had received his life saving treatment in Cath Lab where his cardiologist had inserted a catheter into his artery and implanting a drug eluting stent to open up the affected vessel around his heart.

Mr Doyle was full of praise for his local clinic, the ambulance paramedics, staff at The Valley Private Hospital Emergency Department, Cath lab and Coronary Care Unit. He now feels great and is ready to go home and enjoy 2013. Mr Doyle said that he “can’t express enough his thanks and gratitude to all involved for their quick actions and excellent care”.

Mrs Doyle, Mr Doyle, CCU Nurse Liji, Cath Lab Nurse Katrina and CCU Nurse Kathy.

January 2013 Issue 4

advanc

New 30 bed ward due for completion Easter 2013New 30 bed ward due for completion Easter 2013New 30 bed ward due for completion Easter 2013New 30 bed ward due for completion Easter 2013

The singing patient Mr Antoine Lim-How thoroughly enjoyed his hospital stay at TV in December but did not feel his visit was complete until he had the opportunity to sing Neil Dia-mond’s rock hit “Sweet Caroline” to our CEO Neil Henderson. Our Healthe Care CFO Gordon Ford happened to be at TV at the time and was able to enjoy the moment too.

Gordon Ford (CFO), Jayesh Rambojun (Accountant), Teorrah Kontos (Social Worker), Antoine Lim-How and Neil Henderson (CEO)

Proposed exterior rendering

Advance - The Valley Private Hospital

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Joke of the month

Christmas @ The Valley There was plenty of Christmas cheer at TV during the month of December. All depart-ments did a great job in decorating their department. The A & E Department took home the prize in our annual Christmas decorations competition which was judged by our DON Judith Knight & CEO Neil Henderson. Santa’s little helper even made a visit to TV! Our CEO Neil Hender-son cooked up a storm for our staff Christ-mas BBQ lunch.

Flynn Courtyard in full bloomFlynn Courtyard in full bloomFlynn Courtyard in full bloomFlynn Courtyard in full bloom

Two guys were out walking their dogs on a hot day, when they passed by a pub. The first guy says “Let’s go in there for a pint.” Second guy, says, “They won’t let us in with our dogs.” First guy: “Sure they will, just follow my lead.”

He goes up to the pub, and sure enough the doorman says, “I can’t let you in here with that dog.” He replies, “Oh, I’m blind and this is my seeing-eye dog.” The doorman says, “Ok then, come on in.”

The second guy sees this and does the same thing. He goes up to the pub, and the doorman says, “You can’t come in here with a dog.” He replies, “I’m blind and this is my seeing-eye dog.” The doorman responds, “You have a chihuahua for a seeing-eye dog?” The second guy stops for a second, and exclaims, “They gave me a chihuahua?”

Infection Control Appointment - Victoria Hamilton Victoria Hamilton has recently been employed as the Infection Control Coordinator at the TV 2 days a week. Victoria will be working in collaboration with Julia Small the HICMR Infection Control Consultant and all the staff at TV.

Victoria has 2 children and a menagerie of animals which includes 2 cats, 2 dogs and a horse. Victoria volunteers for Animal Aid in Coldstream and also for her local community when she can. For relaxation she loves music and tries to find time to play the piano, guitar and sing.

Victoria’s nursing career began in 1990, as a student SRN in Yorkshire England. She immigrated to Australia in 1996 and worked at the Angliss Hospital, Ferntree Gully in CCU and Haemodialysis. After enrolling for her Postgraduate Diploma in Critical Care in 1998, she worked for a short time at SE in CCU until 2000 and

then went to Monash ICU where she worked as an ANUM. In 2008 Victoria joined the Infection Control Team at Monash and obtained her Post Grad Cert in Infection Control and Immunisation. Victoria has since worked at Knox and Epworth gaining extensive knowledge and experience into the world of Infection Control. Victoria is looking forward to bonding and working alongside everyone at TV and facilitating an Infect ion Control culture that we can all be proud of.

The Valley Private Hospital

Cnr Police & Gladstone Roads

Mulgrave VIC 3170

Phone: 03 9790 9333

Fax: 03 9790 0639

Coral was Alert We had a recent break in at TV and the next day at SE. Coral Tisdale, Food Assistant spotted a suspicious behaving man and got a good look. She is assisting police who believe they have narrowed down the suspect. Coral has provided police with a detailed description of the man to help the police sketch artist pro-duce a drawing. The thief was also caught on camera. This reinforces the importance of being alert to any suspi-cious behaviour and relaying it to senior manage-ment immediately. Well done to Coral for being vigilant!

Government Under Fire About Funding for Public Hospitals We are all aware of the funding crisis in the public system, and for those that have been in the industry a long time, this is nothing new, and raises its head regularly. In an effort to take pressure off the public system, the Government has allocated a small amount for the private sector to competitively tender. In the Age on 9th January it was reported:

The Victorian government is under fire for providing millions of dollars to private hospitals for surgery as public hospitals close beds and plan to sack hundreds of staff due to budget cuts.

Nine private hospitals are being given more than $4 million to collaborate with public hospitals to perform about 2100 elective surgery procedures over the next five months.

The move has angered the opposition and worried private health insurers, which fear it could undermine the value of private health insurance because public patients will be operated on in private hospitals. While Australian Private Hospitals Association Chief Executive Michael Roff applauded the initiative, saying private hospitals were well placed to help governments cut elective surgery waiting lists, private health insurers are concerned it could

undermine perceptions of the value of private health insurance.

A spokesman for Private Healthcare Australia said that although the scheme acknowledged the efficiency of the private sector, it would be concerned if access to beds and treatment for people with private health insurance was diminished in any way. A spokeswoman for Medibank echoed this view. Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/outcry-over-surgery-cash-20130108-2cexc.html#ixzz2HW9jWr4e

The Valley and South Eastern elected not to bid for funds, rather keeping our facility available for private patients. It is interesting to note however, that of the $4m, the Government has allocated $1.4m to Jessie McPherson Private Hospital, which most will be aware is fully owned by Southern Health itself, and operates as a defacto public hospital net for private patients. It’s a bit like taking from the left hand and giving to the right !

In the interim, rest assured that The Valley and South Eastern will not have any access issues arising from treating public patients. Any feedback is welcomed.