Corowa LHAC chair Anne Wescott, Cr David Harrison and Corowa Hospital facility manager Dr Julianna Sheridan announced the $700,000 grant that will go towards emergency department upgrades.
Photo by
Ian Johnson
Corowa Hospital’s Emergency Department is set for it’s first major upgrade since 1983, to be delivered over the next two years.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Facility manager, Dr Juliana Sheridan said that upgrades to the older hospital were well overdue and part of a broader plan for Corowa Hospital that she hoped would include a rebuilt facility in the foreseeable future.
“We want a safe space for our vulnerable patients that is also culturally safe and diverse for our community,” Dr Sheridan said.
“Our Emergency Department (ED) is problematic at the moment; the general workflow isn’t ideal, and patient privacy is something we want to address in this development.
“There are currently four ED beds, which will remain the same, but we’ll make the space available to us more user-friendly.
“At the moment, everything is very close together, patients are only separated by a curtain, so confidentiality and privacy is an issue; we want to improve that for patients.”
Dr Sheridan joined Corowa Hospital as facility manager five months ago and said she was looking forward to a long-term appointment driving the hospital forward.
The South African born doctor’s husband was born in Corowa and has family in Daysdale, and they moved back to the area about 10 years ago
Dr Sheridan’s background is primarily intensive care, and with more than 20 years’ experience, including at the Alfred and Monash hospitals, she wants to bring a hands-on approach to Corowa and expand the hospital’s capabilities.
She said if regional hospitals can help by performing procedures such as surgeries and plastering, it would start solving the problems with backlog in bigger facilities.
“It will be ideal to relieve pressures from the key hospitals,” Dr Sheridan said.
“If we can get one or two dialysis chairs or some rehabilitation beds, that will provide some relief for the bigger centres and service our community better.”
Dr Sheridan said upgrades to the hospital were well overdue and necessary to better serve the community and take pressure off bigger hospitals.
Photo by
Ian Johnson
Cr David Harrison said the Clinical Services Plan delivered in August showed that Corowa needed a new hospital facility in the future and welcomed Dr Sheridan’s input.
He said the hospital had several short-term managers in the past, but with Dr Sheridan’s family links to the area the town now had a long-term manager to help nurse a population with a median age 14 years older than the NSW average.
“With an aging population here, we have more health needs, so this place is vital to the health outcomes for our community,” Cr Harrison said.
“I can speak as a frequent flyer in the ED; it gets crowded in a small community.
“We all know each other, but you really don't want to be seeing your neighbour in the next bed getting treated.
“It makes it difficult for staff to deal with confidentiality; I can see this will make it a much better workplace.”
Cr Harrison praised the quality of treatment provided at the hospital and said its proximity to an airport and technology to video link specialists in Melbourne represented an opportunity to make it an even better medical facility.
“It's a great facility, but we really need to put it in a better shed,” he said.
“There are good people there doing good work, let's give them space to work properly, safely, and reach all their guidelines.”
The $700,000 in funds comes from Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) as part of the NSW Government’s $12 million Regional Health Minor Works Program.
Consultation for architecture and engineering will begin immediately, with construction hoped to begin in July next year for completion in 2028.
11°C