Our Warrnambool Auxiliary has held another hugely successful fundraiser for us. This week, its members donated the impressive $4,737 proceeds of their September-20 Spring Luncheon.
Our Warrnambool Auxiliary’s final fundraiser for the year will be a screening of The Fabulous Four at Warrnambool’s Capitol Cinema on November 14.
Our week’s started in the most lovely way, with Clocktower CWA president Marg Bateman (in the back row, holding the cheque) and her members donating $300 to our Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal.
With birthing services at Camperdown set to resume on Monday 9 September, South West Healthcare is providing an update from our CEO Craig Fraser to inform the community.
A wonderful $18,400 donation from our SWH Camperdown & District Hospital Auxiliary brings us closer to our appeal target to furnish and equip our Camperdown Residential Aged Care facility.
Upgrades to Warrnambool's Community Mental Health facilities have been successfully completed.
Reid Stockfeeds is the latest donor to our $562,000 Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal. Today, at its Cobden plant, the company gifted $10,000 and in a second act of generosity, Ian and Rosli Reid's family personally gifted another $5,000.
After donating $12,000 to our medical equipment appeal a month ago, our hard working Woolsthorpe Auxiliary members are back at it, fundraising-wise.
Dr Freddie Johansson has recently commenced as the new Clinical Director, Mental Health and Wellbeing Services at South West Healthcare.
Our Warrnambool Auxiliary's hosting what will be a fabulous afternoon on September 20 to raise money for our Maternity Unit. All the info's in the image. We'd love you to come.
Another remarkable year of fundraising has this week seen our SWH Woolsthorpe Auxiliary donate $12,000 to our medical equipment appeal.
South West Healthcare is pleased to announce completion of Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the Emergency Department Expansion Project.
Lismore and district farmers will have access to a new weekly fitness group commencing Friday 5 July for six weeks at the Lismore Community Health Centre gym.
We are pleased to announce the opening of a brand-new 36-space patient only car park at the corner of Ryot Street and Timor Street, Warrnambool, effective Monday 15th July 2024.
The Camperdown Turf Club is the latest donor to our Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal. Club president Anthony Finn and vice president Rose Henry proudly presented $9,200 to our redevelopment and infrastructure executive director Jamie Brennan today.
A community survey of the Corangamite Shire has found that 43 per cent of residents have experienced food insecurity in recent years.
South West Healthcare’s Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA) has seen referrals to their sexual assault and therapeutic family violence programs double over the past 6 months.
Commencing construction this week and anticipated to open mid next year, South West Healthcare’s brand-new Community Mental Health and Wellbeing centre located on Londsdale Street, Hamilton will enhance accessibility to mental health and wellbeing support in the Southern Grampians region.
A successful application by South West Healthcare in conjunction with Deakin University’s Western Victoria Regional Training Hub will see better care for women of the south west.
Wednesday 5 June, also known as World Environment Day, presents an opportune time for South West Healthcare to highlight our continued commitment to reducing our environmental footprint associated with the clinical care of patients.
The Rotary Club of Camperdown surprised guests during its 75th birthday celebrations on Saturday night by presenting a $20,000 donation to our Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal.
The ongoing generosity of donors has this week seen to the furnishing and equipping of our Camperdown Residential Aged Care’s 23rd bedroom. This time, it’s the Friends and Relatives of Merindah (FROM) who’ve made the significant $9,200 donation to ensure the completion of one of the facility’s 36 bedrooms.
Here’s a sweet story to wrap up the work-week with. An incredibly kind local (who wants to remain anonymous) has delivered the most beautiful roses to our Merindah Lodge residents. We never tire of Acts of Kindness.
Standing on the lawn we plan to build a beautiful garden gazebo on for the people we care for in our Warrnambool Mental Health Inpatient Unit, representatives from two compassionate clubs came together today to launch the $19,870 appeal to pay for it.
South West Healthcare have been accredited as one of the nation’s first rural training hospitals for Plastic and Reconstructive Registrars in their final years of training.
Earlier today, our $562,000 Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal reached an impressive milestone with the announcement of a $55,200 donation from the Collier Charitable Fund. This generous gift means the appeal has now crossed the half-way mark.
Thank you to these first 15 people for donating $97 each to our $4,850 HAIR & NAIL SALON APPEAL:
Of all our donors, there’s only one who has ridden 520 kilometres a year FOR 34 YEARS IN A ROW to help us stay on top of the medical equipment we need to care for our younger patients.
CABRINI is the June-13 film our SWH Warrnambool Auxiliary is screening as it fundraises for three epidural-specific infusion pumps for our Maternity Unit.
This week there’s been a hive of activity out at Allansford as CWA branch members gathered to make more trauma teddies and drawstring bags (for coloring books, pencils and the like) to help keep our younger patients distracted whilst undergoing medical procedures and treatments.
Planned construction upgrades will commence Tuesday 30 April 2024 at South West Healthcare’s Community Mental Health Services on Koroit Street, Warrnambool.
Members of the Southwest Bottles & Collectables Club should be very proud of themselves. They’re responsible for garnering tremendous community support to collectively raise the $6,000 we needed for the renting of two SmileyScopes for the sick kids we’ll look after at our Warrnambool Base Hospital during the next 12 months.
BEYOND BANK AUSTRALIA is the latest donor to our Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal. This morning, Beyond Bank’s community development manager Grant Howland has presented appeal manager Suzan Morey and aged care redevelopment manager Janine Dureau-Finn with a cheque for $5,000.
WE’RE SEARCHING FOR 50 PEOPLE to each donate $97 to raise the $4,850 needed to furnish and equip the Hair & Nail Salon in the new residential aged care facility we’re building in Camperdown. Please call our community partnerships manager Suzan Morey on 5564 4100 if you’d like to be 1 of them. Everyone deserves to be pampered.
We wish our 2024 Murray to Moyne Cycle Relay team – our riders and support crew – all the best for this weekend’s event. Team members are now making their way to Mildura ready for tomorrow morning’s start. Relay-style, they’ll cycle 520 kilometres, arriving in Port Fairy on Sunday.
Merindah Lodge are keeping their infection risk low after being assessed as 100 per cent compliant for ‘Bare Below the Elbow’ during a recent audit of the South West Healthcare facility.
Our $562,000 Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal is going great guns. We’re now just $30,000 short of crossing the half-way mark after receiving a very generous donation from a Warrnambool supermarket.
An exciting collaboration is officially underway at Merindah Lodge, Camperdown, with local artist, Merindah Lodge residents and students from Camperdown College’s year 10 art class.
The next generation of doctors are building their medical skills and knowledge after joining the team at South West Healthcare this year.
Our Warrnambool Auxiliary sure knows how to run a fundraising event. With the incredibly generous support of the many local business listed below, their months of selling raffle tickets has culminated in an afternoon with friends, live music, a BBQ and a profit of $12,052.
A $100,000 gift from The Midfield Group has this afternoon launched our Camperdown Residential Aged Care Appeal.
Our SWH Warrnambool Auxiliary has secured the March-21 debut screening of WICKED LITTLE LETTERS - in which a 1920s English seaside town bears witness to a farcical and occasionally sinister scandal in this riotous mystery comedy.
Heart surgery survivor turned volunteer Barb Skilbeck has likened the time she spent at South West Healthcare’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Clinic to feeling like she was home.
Trade parking allocations at off-site locations will enhance accessibility for services users during their visits at South West Healthcare.
Some incredibly generous donors gathered at our Camperdown Hospital this week to see for themselves new medical equipment they’re responsible for bringing to our part of the world.
The door-takings of this weekend’s South West Bottle & Collectables Club’s State Show will be generously donated to our $6,000 SmileyScopes 4 Kids Appeal.
Today we officially launched our SmileyScopes for Kids Appeal in partnership with the South West Bottle & Collectables Club. Together, we hope to raise the $6,000 needed to rent, for 12 months, one SmileyScope for our paediatrics unit and one Smileyscope for our emergency department paediatrics treatment room. (We’ve already raised the $3,000 needed to rent one for children in our Camperdown Hospital.)
We are pleased to announce the recent appointment of Hansen Yuncken Pty Ltd as the Early Works main contract for South West Healthcare’s Warrnambool Base Hospital Redevelopment.
South West Healthcare’s Regional Logistics Distribution Centre (RLDC) welcomed the hon. Mary-Anne Thomas to mark milestone of construction completion.
New GP rotation helps give doctors better work life balance and attract new talent to the region
Building bigger and better health care for the South West.
The much-anticipated revitalization and expansion of South West Healthcare's Emergency Department is set to commence on Monday January 15, 2024.
CONGRATULATIONS to Warrnambool’s Barb Glare (pictured) who today won our Christmas Cubby House Raffle.
The Dennington Community Association today delivered Christmas presents to 155 patients in our Warrnambool Base Hospital.
This year's AGM saw a number of staff and volunteers recognised for their outstanding work and contribution to our service, including the 2023 AEW Matthews Memorial Travelling Scholarship winner and Manager of Biomedical Engineering, Dr Geoff Ward.
This month South West Healthcare celebrated the contribution of our longest serving staff members at the Staff Service Awards.
Our hard working SWH Woolsthorpe Auxiliary has just received this terrific donation of fiction to add to the hundreds of preloved books they’ll be selling at today’s Warrnambool Summer Night Market.
A total 67 years of voluntarily fundraising for our Warrnambool Base Hospital has led to four remarkable women being honoured at our 169th Annual General Meeting.
We’re $1,000 closer to owning our first MolecuLight thanks to an incredibly generous donation from the Warrnambool and District Old Time Dance Club.
Our SWH Woolsthorpe Auxiliary members generously donated their Sunday to fundraising for us. Yesterday's first-shift trio at the Bunnings BBQ tent was Virginia Marshall (left), Susan Sambell and John Sambell. The day raised a little over $1,400. Now that’s a LOT of sausages.
South West Healthcare has been recognised as the State’s best medium-sized health service at the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards, taking home two out of three nominated awards.
We thank the Kiwanis Club of Warrnambool for becoming the first donor to our $9,000 Christmas Appeal for toys and play therapy equipment for local kids in our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAHMS).
Construction works are officially underway to build Camperdown’s brand-new 36-bedroom aged care facility.
Our hardworking Woolsthorpe Auxiliary is running the Bunnings BBQ in Warrnambool on Sunday November 19. Swing by for brunch or lunch. They’ll be there from 9am–4pm helping to raise money for us to buy new medical equipment.
Board applications are now open.
South West Healthcare invites all members of its staff and the public to attend the 2022-23 Annual General Meeting, where the Annual Report will be presented by Board Chair Dr. Bernadette Northeast and the Board of Directors.
Builders Bowden Corporation have recently been appointed to renew South West Healthcare’s Warrnambool Base Hospital Emergency Department.
This Christmas we want to raise $9,000 for toys and play therapy equipment for our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Could you help get us there by buying some tickets for the cubby house we’re raffling? They’re on sale now at: galabid.com/southwesthealthcare
Raising awareness and expanding education of asexuality.
Today we’d like to welcome two new Doctors to our medical team here at SWH.
South West Healthcare has been named as a finalist in the Victorian Healthcare Awards across three categories including the ‘Premier’s Medium-sized Health Service of the Year’ category, the 'Keeping the Community Safe and Well' and 'Creating a Sustainable and Climate Resilient Health System' categories.
A recent study from the Health Promotion Team at South West Healthcare shows that eating a diet consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines, (which includes five serves of vegetables every day) is more affordable than the average Australian diet (which does not meet the guidelines).
October is the designated month for celebrating Mental Health, culminating in World Mental Health Day on 10 October.
We love showing our donors how their money helps make our patients’ stay even more pleasurable and here’s a perfect example...
Two new pieces of expensive medical equipment have arrived at our Macarthur Community Health centre thanks to a generous $14,750 donation from AGL Energy Limited’s Macarthur Wind Farm Community Fund.
World Breastfeeding Week is being celebrated at South West Healthcare! Lactation Consultant, Leanne O’Connor offered extra training to Midwives on Wednesday in addition to her regular Infant Feeding appointments. Leanne assisted Emily and baby Audrey and Elley Mae and baby Henry on Wednesday.
The South Western Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA) hosted Sexual Assault Services Victoria (SASVIC) on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
Our SWH Warrnambool Auxiliary has secured the August-24 debut screening of a movie we’re really excited about: a new comedy called THE MIRACLE CLUB.
This week kicked off the first session of the staff construction site tours at the Regional Logistic Distribution Centre, Cooper Street Warrnambool.
On Friday 3 July 2023, Hayley Keane, Learning and Development Coordinator competed in the Faculty of Arts and Education final for the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition and was awarded the Andrea Gallant People’s Choice Award and was the overall winner.
Access to mental health and wellbeing support for both adults and young people will increase in the Southern Grampians area with the opening of the new South West Healthcare Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Services building in Hamilton early next year.
The $384.2 million Warrnambool Base Hospital redevelopment is on track, with construction of the new offsite Regional Logistics Distribution Centre (RLDC) nearing structural completion.
Pride Month is celebrated in June each year to honour the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York. The purpose of this month is to celebrate and recognise the impact that the LGBTIQA+ community have had on history around the world. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness and to listen to the voices and stories of LGBTIQA+ communities.
It was Vic State Budget Day yesterday, and we were pleased to see the Victorian Government commit to further funding for women’s health and support for endometriosis here at South West Healthcare, with a visit from Labor MP Jacinta Ermacora.
Executive Director of People and Culture, Sheron Cook journeyed to Manchester, England, last week to attend the Health Care Jobs Fair. She was joined by representatives from Northern Health, Eastern Health, Bairnsdale, Echuca and Western Health as guests of the Victorian Department of Health.
Volunteers make the world go round in our small towns. SWH values the services of over 300 volunteers who contribute an enormous amount of time and care to our patients and our teams. This week we hosted a number of events to celebrate their efforts as part of Volunteers Week.
TODAY is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) and South West Healthcare is celebrating!
Our Camperdown & District Hospital Auxiliary’s annual art show, A Spring Catalogue, opens with drinks and nibbles on the evening of May 12. Tickets to this 6.30–11pm gala event are $50 and on sale now at www.trybooking.com/CIBFU
The development of our new $39.6M Camperdown Aged Care facility continues to progress. All designs have been completed and signed off and the project now moves into the final engagement stage. Key stakeholder groups of staff, residents, families, relevant auxiliaries and First Nations representatives have provided valuable input into the decision making for wayfinding and the naming of the new facility.
Our Warrnambool Auxiliary’s next fundraising film is the BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER where four best friends, this time, jet off to Italy. This highly anticipated sequel stars Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen.
The pandemic-related drought on fashion parade fundraisers was broken Sunday when local women gathered at Style 105 to raise money for our Warrnambool Base Hospital. Thank you to the event’s MC Debbie Arnott (who’s also the owner of this boutique that’s impressively just celebrated its 15th year in business), her wonderful models and everyone who attended.
We wish our two 2023 Murray to Moyne Cycle Relay teams – both the riders and their support crews – all the best for this weekend’s event. Both teams are now making their way to the towns they will start from tomorrow morning. Our Scrubbers & The Gasman team will depart from Echuca whilst our Warrnambool College team will leave from Mildura. Relay-style, they’ll cycle 520 kilometres, arriving in Port Fairy on Sunday afternoon.
An incredibly meaningful artwork has been unveiled at our SWH South West Centre Against Sexual Assault. Proud Keerray Woorroong indigenous artist Sherry Johnstone designed and painted Tree of Trust; commissioned and gifted by one of our former SW CASA managers Mary Clapham. Both Sherry and Mary presented the piece to staff at SW CASA, along with a framed explanation. The pair will proudly hang side-by-side in our CASA waiting room.
It was party time this morning when members of our SWH Warrnambool Auxiliary turned up with the final $5,000 needed to hit our $69,000 target for a new Nerve Integrity Monitor for our Warrnambool operating theatres. There are many, many people to thank for helping us raise this massive amount of money for this sophisticated piece of medical equipment. During head and neck surgery to remove tumours and growths, a Nerve Integrity Monitor helps locate and track hard-to-find nerves to reduce the risks of facial palsy and voice loss.
Construction of the first stage of Warrnambool Base Hospital Redevelopment is making great progress, with the concrete slab now poured at the Cooper Street located Regional Logistic Distribution Centre (RLDC) this week. This is a significant milestone for this phase of the project and comes after construction was commenced in mid-January.
South West Healthcare is proud to announce the 2023 AEW Matthews Scholarship winner, Rachel Robertson.
A recent report conducted by the South West Healthcare Health Promotion team has found that food insecurity* is on the rise in the Warrnambool region, prompting a call for the creation of a food system strategy for the region and more equitable access to healthy food.
South West Healthcare announced at its Annual General Meeting record capital expenditure for the last financial year (FY) as well as an increase to the organisation’s workforce with an additional 190 staff members employed across the region to meet increasing demand on its services.
We love it when a club offers to help fundraise for us, alongside their own events. Such is the case with the South West Bottle and Collectables Club and its annual show, on this weekend.
Tomorrow’s the 3rd (of 5) fabulous Friday evening Summer Night Markets down on the lawns of Warrnambool’s Lake Pertobe precinct. After (or before) you spread out on your byo picnic rug to recharge on local produce and live music, we’d love you to visit our SWH Woolsthorpe Auxiliary’s second hand bookstall… 100s and 100s of really cheap books in really good condition.
There’s now just $22,700 between us and a new Nerve Integrity Monitor (NIM) for our Warrnambool operating theatres. If you’re looking for a LOCAL cause to support this festive season, could this be it?
To the delight of patients young and older, Dennington Community Association president John Harris today delivered a trolley-load of Christmas joy. Individually wrapped presents were shared between many of our Warrnambool Base Hospital units and wards.
Money raised from this two-day event will go towards the four $1,000 CoaguCheks we need for our Warrnambool District Nursing Service.
This is THE BEST news to wrap up the work-week on. We’re $30,000 closer to hitting our target for a new Nerve Integrity Monitor for our Warrnambool operating theatres.
It’s all systems go for our Christmas Appeal. We need to raise $69,000 for a Nerve Integrity Monitor for our Warrnambool operating theatres. Our surgeons will use it to help prevent nerve injury (such as facial palsy and voice loss) whilst removing head and neck tumours and growths.
Your support of this online raffle will help us buy a desperately-needed piece of medical equipment for our Warrnambool operating theatres. It’s a great cause. And just as great is the $6,000 of prizes!
Local foundation We’ve Got You have joined forces with South West Healthcare to establish a dedicated bereavement room for families who experience perinatal or infant loss at the Warrnambool Base Hospital.
The Department of Health is pleased to invite applications for part time board director positions at South West Healthcare with terms of office commencing from 1 July 2023.
A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress (haven't we all 💗) and decides that she MUST have her own. Join us for what will be another fabulous fundraising event by our Warrnambool Auxiliary. Tickets are on sale NOW.
Composer Jeanette Hajncl (centre) has received a standing ovation for the cantata she created from her experiences as an artist in residence in our Warrnambool emergency department.
The Gender Equality Commission has this week published South West Healthcare’s Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP), which you can view alongside gender audit results from public service organisations across the state. This action plan and audit is the first of its kind, with more than 300 public section organisations taking part, employing more than 450,000 workers.
The Victorian Health Building Authority has today released the first renders of SWH's future aged care facility in Camperdown.
There would be few people under the age of 35 in the region who weren’t brought into the world by Doctor Chris Beaton, who today is hanging up his scrubs and retiring from a long career in obstetrics and gynaecology.
Looking for something to donate to before the financial year ends? We’ve got a list a mile long...
Congratulations to our newest palliative care volunteers, following the completion of their training.
Our SWH Warrnambool Auxiliary is presenting Warrnambool's premiere screening of ELVIS on Thursday June 23.
The generosity of a donor wanting to give back to the Camperdown community has paid for two incredibly expensive pieces of medical equipment for our Camperdown Hospital. The first has just arrived and our theatre team could not be happier. Worth $39,000, an argon plasma diathermy unit – used to help rule out cancer – is usually only owned by much larger hospitals.
Today SWH’s nursing team came together to celebrate a number of staff who have gone ‘above and beyond’ to show dedication to their patients and to their profession at the SWH Staff Nursing Awards.
In just 39 days our wonderful donors have helped us raise $43,800 to buy a new Rapid Infuser for our Warrnambool operating theatres.
South West Healthcare supports the highest standards of care, including the emotional and mental healthcare of all expectant mums and new mums, and with this in mind we are making changes to our perinatal mental health screening.
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.
