SWH staff wore a touch of rainbow to acknowledge IDAHOBIT Day, and to show our support for the LGBTIQ+ community.
The return of our Camperdown & District Hospital Auxiliary’s Spring Catalogue art show has been welcomed with gusto. Close to 150 people attended the weekend affair following a pandemic-induced two-year hiatus.
SWH's aged care facility in Camperdown, Merindah Lodge, will be re-built from the ground up, thanks to funding from the State Government announced today.
Our Wall of Poppies again stands pride of place in the foyer of our Warrnambool Base Hospital to honor past and current armed services personnel.
A 100th birthday party of the Austin 7 Club took a twist last night. Instead of receiving gifts, the club handed one out. And a very large one at that.
It’s bon voyage to the two teams riding for us in this weekend’s Murray2Moyne Cycle Relay.
The combined Rotary Clubs of Warrnambool have today donated $6,000 of coffee cards to our workforce to recognise the incredible work we’ve done during the pandemic. SWH has matched this generous gift to ensure every one of our staff across all our campuses (Warrnambool, Camperdown, Lismore, Macarthur, Portland and Hamilton) feels the love.
Warrnambool members of the Austin Seven Club have joined us to co-launch our first medical equipment public appeal since the pandemic began. As of now, we’re excitedly fundraising for a $43,800 rapid infuser for our Warrnambool Base Hospital operating theatres.
A fantastic Warrnambool Lodge initiative has seen East Warrnambool Primary School contributing to a 300 kilogram collection of ring pulls that’s raised $500 for our paediatrics unit.
There’s no denying that the healthcare industry has a heavy footprint when it comes to single-use waste.
Over the next fortnight SWH will be donating 1,000 meals to Food Share Warrnambool.
After a long an illustrious career, Carole Manifold will be retiring from work at our Camperdown campus, but will continue in her role as President of the Friends and Relatives of Merindah Lodge committee, where she has served in the role for 11 years.
She’s only nine-and-a-half months old and already making the world a better place to be.
The Camperdown Vaccination clinic welcomed a special visit from Cooper the therapy dog.
Feel good about your morning coffee at SWH's Cafe Nosh!
Tennis fans and staff at South West Healthcare were treated to a special visit from legend of the game, John Fitzgerald OAM on Thursday 2 December 2021.
Infection Prevention Coordinator JENNY LUKEIS (pictured) has today been awarded our 2021 AEW Matthews Memorial Travelling Scholarship.
South west Victorian health services are joining forces to raise awareness about gender-based violence against women and children.
A South West Healthcare (SWH) pharmacist is calling on the community to play its part in reducing antimicrobial resistance.
The Minister for Health, Martin Foley MP, is pleased to invite applications for part-time board positions at South West Healthcare with terms of office commencing from 1 July 2022.
Raising money for a much needed fetal heart detector.
2022 is just around the corner and a Good Morning Warrnambool calendar would make a great start to the year and a lovely Christmas present.
The support a young person receives from the important adults in their lives fosters their development and emotional wellbeing, and it is these adults a young person will turn to in times of need or worry. This Mental Health Week we encourage all parents and carers to take a moment to connect with their young person and chat about how they are feeling.
This FREE event is highly regarded. When we ran it last year, 150 families booked in, and more than that watched our post-forum recording. The booking links to the two times we’ll be running this online forum on August 23 are below:
We’re over the moon to learn today that our SWH COVID vaccination rates are the third highest in Australia and the second highest in Victoria!
Our SWH Warrnambool Auxiliary’s first fundraiser for 2021 is an August-19 screening of the film RESPECT. To be shown in one of the Capitol Cinema’s ground floor spaces, your $25 ticket includes an individually-packed (COVID-friendly) morning tea. Funds raised will help replace our Midwifery Unit’s aged fleet of baby cots ($3,000 is needed for six new ones).
The students, staff and families of the 59 South West region early childhood services involved in the Smiles 4 Miles oral health program plan to, this week, put the spotlight on promoting this year's Dental Health Week theme: Keep your Smile for Life.
Best mates are now catching up as we ease some of our COVID-related visitor restrictions. Dudley couldn’t wait to visit Jim Martin for some much-needed cuddles.
Two-year-old Ollie Noble’s ready for the opening of tonight’s Olympic Games (even ‘tho the son of Koroit’s Emma and Todd Noble was far more interested in the art he was making with our paediatrics unit registered nurse Sarah Gaut when we popped in to ask him to fly our flag).
Wata Waetnanda will be joined by From the Heart’s Dean Parkin for an indepth yarn about the Uluru Statement, From The Heart, on July 28 at 12.30pm.
Today South West Healthcare celebrated NAIDOC week by holding a small flag raising and smoking ceremony including a Welcome to Country.
South West Healthcare is now recruiting consumer advisors to join the Consumer and Community Advisory Committee.
Thankfully, some of our Macarthur Community Health social support group got an outing in before this latest lockdown.
Today our Warrnambool Vaccination Clinic and Camperdown Vaccination Centre are continuing to AstraZeneca-vaccinate people aged 50 and over.
As National Palliative Care Week begins, our SWH Community Palliative Care Team is currently supporting 112 patients with a life-limiting illness. Each of these patients also has a carer and each of these carers is also being supported by our wonderful CPC team.
The Victorian Government’s committed $4.95 million of State Budget funding to progress the design of the long-awaited redevelopment of our Camperdown residential aged care facility.
Our years of advocating for more funded beds for mental health patients has been rewarded. Today we welcome the announcement we’ve secured $10.9 million of government funding to not only upgrade our existing mental health acute inpatient unit but to increase the number of beds there by 25 percent (from 15 to 20).
Our Mental Health Services (MHS) has bid a sad farewell to Janet Punch who’s retired from MHS after an amazing 38 years (or as she tells us, 38 years, 5 months and 16 days) and a total 42 years as a nurse.
International Nurses Day ends on a high with the presenting of our first-ever SWH Nursing and Midwifery Awards. And it's congratulations to Tina Johnstone (from left), Leanne O'Connor and Chris Toone.
The stylishly-dressed team (thanks for the scrubs, Gorman ) at our Warrnambool Vaccination Centre have done another brilliant day’s work – as the news spreads that we’re now an ‘open access’ vaccination centre taking bookings AND walk-ins.
We've just installed state-of-the-art lighting technology in three of our busy Warrnambool operating theatres. Worth $150,000, theatres 1, 2 and 3 are the beneficiaries.
Dr Mark Page, our director of critical care & infection prevention, is in no doubt that the way to a COVID-free future is by as many of us as possible being vaccinated.
As ANZAC Day nears, our Wall of Poppies stands pride of place in the foyer of our Warrnambool Base Hospital to honor past and current armed services personnel.
Some of our theatre staff came out to wave off their colleagues this morning as our Scrubbers & The Gasman team headed for Mildura. They’d be there by now and the irony’s not lost on us that it’s a six-hour drive up but a two-day/evening ride back.
All men affected by prostate cancer, their partners, carers and family members are encouraged to attend this info session.
We welcome CECILIA AKINLOYE (from left) and SHEEMA ITRAT to our team.
The average Australian swallows 500–700 times a day. That’s around three times an hour when sleeping, once a minute while awake and even more during meals. So imagine how frightening and life threatening it is for people who have difficulty with swallowing.
A very cheeky Ray Riches and Tash Swayn partnered up today to become Camperdown’s official COVID vaccination stars.
Emergency department associate nurse unit manager Carole Holman and nurse immuniser Tina Jess have today made history by becoming the first person to get, and the first person to give, a COVID vaccination in Warrnambool.
Our bid to bring the best to the bush has led to the securing of a highly-respected full-time nephrologist (kidney specialist).
SWH nurse practitioner Terry Swanson is one of 12 trailblazing women recognised in this exhibition. The full story's in our NEWS section.
We are so proud. Of the 12 women to be honored in an exhibition to be opened today by Premier Daniel Andrews, one of them is one of ours.
We’re thrilled to announce CARPE DIEM, a hilarious play with a serious message showing how friendship and proper care can give a man the strength to cope and the tools to carry on, is coming to Macarthur.
In readiness for the COVID-vaccinating of thousands of local people, we’ve today briefed the media on our plans to establish a vaccination centre.
A partnership between South West Healthcare (SWH) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) has resulted in our part of the region now having our first prostate cancer specialist nurse.
On their lunch break today, some of our allied health team headed to sewing school. They‘re the first to take advantage of our sustainability committee’s workshops on how to make your very own sustainable cutlery holders.
We're urging anyone with COVID-like symptoms who lives in, or visited, Warrnambool between January 25–27 to get tested straight away.
Our Sustainability Committee’s kicking off 2021 with a crafternoon for interested staff to make our own sustainable cutlery holders.
Aila (left) is the daughter of Satoko and Aneill Kamath. Her best friend Violet is the daughter of one of our midwives/associate nurse unit managers Natalie McKinley and husband Robert.
New mum Ebony Primmer (left) is the first of our patients to receive a SWH birthing stick.
Our SWH Scrubbers & The Gasman Murray2Moyne Cycle Relay Team will be sizzling sausages at Bunnings Warrnambool this Saturday.
We wrap up the year with a story of colleagues achieving remarkable things.
The rooftop of our Macarthur Community Health building is the latest of five SWH facilities to be solar-panelled as part of an exciting energy efficiency infrastructure project.
Our 2020 SWH Christmas Decoration Competition has just been won by Camperdown Community Health & the David Newman Centre.
Life governorship is the most prestigious recognition we can bestow on a person who has given an outstanding contribution to our health service over a prolonged period of time.
In total, these 20 dedicated people have worked with us for 410 years and we, and our communities, are better for it.
In total, these 174 dedicated people have worked with us for 3,190 years.
Exciting energy efficiency infrastructure projects financed by a $134,000 grant from the Victorian Health and Human Services Building Authority (VHHABA) are currently being rolled out across five South West Healthcare locations, including Lismore Community Health.
Minister for Mental Health James Merlino has officially opened our 1.94M purpose-built Community Mental Health Services facility.
It's been a huge day for our Mental Health Services (MHS). Just minutes after officially opening our purpose-built $1.94M Portland Community MHS facility, staff at our Warrnambool MHS acute inpatient unit won a Victorian innovation award.
The Macarthur community has united with our SWH health promotion team and Mpower Warrnambool to shine a light on elder abuse, and protect the dignity of older people, by supporting this year’s Warm Safe Home Project.
The Victorian Government has committed $384M of State Budget funding to progress the long-awaited redevelopment of our Warrnambool Base Hospital.
We cannot overstate how fortunate we are to have such a wonderful team of registered volunteers.
Congratulations to our Aboriginal Health & Support Team for creating this moving video, Through The Generations, as our SWH contribution to this year's NAIDOC Week celebrations.
WE ARE Emily Falla (pictured left) and Cinnamon Henry, proud Aboriginal women working in South West Healthcare’s Aboriginal Health & Support team, and we’d like to wish you a Happy NAIDOC Week.
Congratulations to our SWH and Terang & Mortlake Health Service’s health promotion workers.
The 21 occupational therapists and four allied health assistants who work with them have started the week-long celebrations on a big, bright note.
Happy Mental Health Month! We're Jayne (left) and Sonya from South West Healthcare’s Mental Health Services FaPMI Program (Families where a Parent has a Mental Illness).
If anyone deserves thanking for the remarkable job they do, it’s the 70 staff in our regionwide environmental services team. It’s THANK YOUR CLEANER DAY and that’s exactly what we plan to do.
Some put on bike helmets. Some laced up walking shoes. And some saddled horses. Our 4th annual RIDE2WORK DAY is up and running.
Our 1,531 staff have each received a touching surprise gift. Everyone in our workforce, across all of our campuses, has been given a bag of treats and a lovely thank you card as a token of appreciation from our executive team - to say thanks for our incredible work during this ongoing pandemic.
Today is International Allied Health Professional’s Day and we want to give a big shout out to all of our allied health professionals.
We’ve launched our 2020–24 Environmental Management Plan to provide a road map to continue implementing changes to further improve our already-impressive environmental performance.
In breaking news, we can today reveal that work to progress the redevelopment of the Warrnambool Base Hospital has moved one step closer.
Part of a rotating art exhibition celebrating International Year of the Nurse & Midwife is now gracing the walls of our Camperdown Hospital foyer.
At this stage a sighting of them is as rare as the Grampians puma but we’d love you to let us know as soon as you lay eyes on one.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is so impressed with our COVID preparedness planning at Merindah Lodge that it’s asked permission to share the extraordinary things we’re doing with other residential aged care facilities.
In the never ending quest to further develop the enviable list of medical services we offer our community, specialist anaesthetist Dr Sandeep Kusre and specialist nephrologist and general medicine physician Dr Muhammad Javaid are the latest we’ve convinced that South West Healthcare is the best place to be.
Today we’ve joined forces with Western Victoria PHN (WVPHN) to officially launch a new service in the Great South Coast that offers support to people in the critical three-month period following an attempted suicide or suicidal crisis.
We welcome the Government's green light to resume performing more surgery. This is a great outcome for our patients who’ve been very understanding throughout the pandemic.
It’s Nursing in the Community Week and we want to acknowledge the remarkable and wide-ranging work a wonderful team of our nurses provide to people of all ages in their homes.
The gorgeous rehabilitation/GEM therapy garden in the courtyard of our Warrnambool Base Hospital is a sight for sore eyes.
COVID-fatigue and complacency are believed to be behind the noticeable decrease in local people seeking appointments for symptomatic screenings for coronavirus.
Want to hear from local experts about everything you need to know to help your child get ready for school next year?
Got a feeling that someone you know or care about isn’t acting as they normally would? Perhaps they seem out of sorts? More agitated or withdrawn? Or they’re just not themselves. Trust your gut instinct and act on it.
A research team with the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University is currently conducting a study into how COVID-19 is impacting the wellbeing of older Australians.
It’s 45 years today since Gary Smith joined our SWH family.
As we warned in our social media updates on Friday, a cluster grows before it slows
Today is Victory in the Pacific (VP) Day. It commemorates Japan’s acceptance of the Allied demand for unconditional surrender, made on August 14 1945. For Australians, it meant the Second World War was over.
We continue to work incredibly hard behind-the-scenes in the fight to keep coronavirus at bay. This week we, in particular, want to recognise the amazing work being done by our frontline Rapid Assessment Community Evaluation (RACE) team.
We’re loving these New York-based Rochester Regional Health pictures. Hands up who’s seen at least one person wearing their mask in one of these ways.
Today we unveiled our 2020–2024 SWH Strategic Plan. Its vision and strategies will result in improved health and wellbeing outcomes for south west Victorians.
Our midwives have been incredibly busy over the past week. In just 48 hours, 12 babies entered the world at our Warrnambool Base Hospital while our Camperdown Hospital welcomed one-sixth of its entire 2020 births to date.
Over the past seven days we’ve screened another 1,328 people for coronavirus, taking our total screenings to 7,053.
Our Merindah Lodge residents have held a Christmas in July event to raise money for St Vincent’s COVID Isolation & Recovery Facility for Homeless People.
It’s exactly 14 weeks TODAY since our local communities have recorded a positive coronavirus case.
Over the past seven days (July 3–9) SWH has screened another 386 people for coronavirus, taking the total screenings to 5,334.
One of our treasured volunteers is retiring. We thank and fondly farewell Olive McKenzie who’s been with us for 25 years.
We told you yesterday about how proud we are of our workforce offering to do shifts on the visitor screening desks at the entrances to our hospitals, aged care facility, acute mental health unit and community health centres.
This Friday we farewell Health Management intern, Kelvin Yap (centre), who’s been a part of our team for the past six months.
TODAY it’s exactly three months since our local communities have recorded a COVID-positive test result.
We work with some fantastic blokes like this crew in our Mental Health Services team, social worker Jordan Lockett (from left), registered nurse Glenistair Hancock, senior psychologist Robert McGregor and psychologist Paul White.
Ironically, in the hours between us finalising the planning of a June-3 simulated COVID outbreak at Merindah Lodge – to rigorously test our SWH COVID Outbreak Management residential aged care policies and procedures – and June-3 itself, staff and residents got real-life experience.
We’ve got the best news to start the long weekend on. Our Paediatric MRI Appeal is over.
After nine weeks of not one COVID-positive test result in our local communities, we’re slowly, but cautiously, resuming more of our services.
The wonderful human beings who make up our inpatient palliative care unit team gathered for a workshop this week as part of National Palliative Care Week celebrations.
Warrnambool's Wata Waetnanda group (which our Aboriginal liaison health officer Emily Falla is a part of), isn't letting COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions curb National Reconciliation Week celebrations.
For anyone wondering what’s with the tent and tiny prefab in the foreground of our Warrnambool emergency department car park...
The Reconciliation Australia organisers of this year’s National Reconciliation Week say the IN THIS TOGETHER theme they chose a year ago for 2020 is now resonating in ways they could not have foreseen – which reminds all of us that whether we’re in crisis or in reconciliation we are, most definitely, all #InThisTogether.
Today we launched our very own SWH COVID-19 Mental & Emotional Wellbeing Support Line for our local communities.
TODAY is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) and South West Victoria is celebrating!
We’ve started our IDAHOBIT celebrations two days early because our week-day staff wanted to be a part of the Sunday festivities.
Nursing hero Elena Hammond met up with our nursing and midwifery services executive director Gaynor Stevenson today.
In less than a week, more than 1,000 of us here at South West Healthcare have had our flu shot and so should you.
Our Warrnambool operating theatres' new fleet of anaesthetic machines has arrived.
s ANZAC Day nears, our Wall of Poppies stands pride of place in the foyer of our Warrnambool Base Hospital to honour past and current armed services personnel.
Usually 69 registered volunteers help us deliver Meals on Wheels to residents in and around Camperdown.
A big bundle of letters has arrived for our staff from the Warrnambool Tooram Scout Group.
Behind the scenes for the past four weeks, staff have been working 24/7 to prepare, clinically, for what could become a massive intake of Coronavirus patients if local communities drop their guard.
Welcome to the world little Digby. You’ve chosen one of the cruisiest sets of parents around. Just look how chuffed and proud they are, pictured here with registered nurse/midwife Emma Baulch.
We’ve been doing a massive amount of work behind the scenes to shore-up vital supply chains to care for our communities as Coronavirus rears its ugly head.
Here’s another great behind-the-scenes story of local businesses not hesitating to help us during these unprecedented times.
This is how an act of kindness lead to a chain event at our Warrnambool Base Hospital this morning...
Quality manager Kim White (left) and nurse Jo Kellar were part of our meet-&-greet team at the front door of our Warrnambool Base Hospital last night as we commenced the temperature screening of our visitors.
The preparation and systems we've put in place to respond to Coronavirus, including the admission of our first patient, are working very effectively.
We’re so proud of our workforce. Everything going on behind the scenes this week makes our hearts swell as our staff, in anxious times, still continue to live our SWH values. Here’s just one story of the sorts of things happening.
Today is World Oral Health Day - the perfect opportunity to recognise the brilliant work being done by everyone involved in our region’s Smiles 4 Miles program.
Confused about what is 'social distancing'? Check out this group of happy staff at their ED Huddle, which they relocated from a small room to a more open space that allows them to be an arm's length apart.
This afternoon we’ve put new precautions in place to further protect our patients, aged care residents and staff. Our priority (as always) is to ensure we keep our consumers, patients, employees and registered volunteers safe.
This afternoon ACE Radio, ABC Radio and The Standard took the opportunity to be brought up to speed on Coronavirus disease.
Already sick of Autumn? With the clap of her hands, Val Teal can switch the season. She can even change the flight path of a butterfly.
A community art installation is responsible for a WOW factor wall at our Lismore Community Health facility.
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week starts today. Held globally each year to raise awareness of antimicrobial resistance and promote the responsible use of antimicrobials, 2020’s theme of *United to preserve antimicrobials* is, says our Deputy Director of Pharmacy Gavin Flett, aimed at engaging stakeholders from all sectors in a One Health approach to antimicrobial resistance.
These are some of the dozens of Tshirts local people created for the Warrnambool Clothesline Project. They're now on display in the foyer of our Warrnambool Base Hospital.
We love being a part of Deakin University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery Student Awards Night.
