In the 2021-22 financial year South West Healthcare spent more than $3 million dollars on new equipment, including:
– Endoscopic towers, for Warrnambool and Camperdown Hospitals
– New drill system for Warrnambool Operating Theatre
– Point-of-care ultrasound machine (can be used at patient bedside), for Warrnambool Emergency Department
– Infant resisiataire for the Warrnambool Maternity Unit
– Bowa Doathermy with Argon Plasma Coagulation Unit (for the removal of intestinal polyps) for the Camperdown Hospital
– ECG Machine for Camperdown Hospital Acute Ward
– ECG Machine for Warrnambool Short Stay Unit.
The health service remains in a break-even position at the end of the FY and welcomed the announcement of almost $40 million for a new aged-care facility in Camperdown, to add to the growing number of redevelopment works already taking place across multiple campuses.
During the last financial year South West Healthcare became a streaming service for COVID-19 patients, admitting a total of 165 COVID-positive inpatients and 1,314 COVID-positive outpatients, as well as testing 39,040 and vaccinating 66,986 members of our community.
The 2021-22 year was again dominated by COVID-19 with impacts to the service. South West Healthcare established a remote patient monitoring team to ensure COVID-19 positive cases had additional support and monitoring at home before presenting to hospital. This proved a vital service for many elderly and disabled members of our community who lived alone, or were unable to be assisted by carers during their 7-day isolation.
Following the rise of Omicron cases in early 2022 South West Healthcare created a dedicated COVID-19 ward at the Warrnambool Base Hospital and established a mass testing facility at Deakin University to allow for larger amounts of traffic and staff to be processed. That site saw more than 6,350 people present for testing over three weeks, before being stood down. Teams were able to respond in an agile way and despite the pressures placed on staffing levels, South West Healthcare were able to continue with most services uninterrupted. The exception to this was unfortunately elective surgery.
Data in relation to service hours and appointments also showed an increase in the number of services returning to ‘business as usual’, following COVID-19 lockdowns. The number of allied health occasions of service provided to clients was in fact higher than pre-COVID levels at 118, 999 (up from 76,031 the previous year) which is in part due to the high numbers of patients receiving remote home monitoring with symptoms associated with COVID-19.
“Despite a high COVID peak and demand in early 2022 it was great to see services start to return to normal from March 2022-onwards, and to begin to address almost 18 months of lost time following COVID shut-downs,” Says SWH CEO Craig Fraser.
“Community and allied health services play a vital role in assisting people to manage chronic illness and injuries and are an important aspect of preventing avoidable inpatient admissions,” says Fraser.
“Our community and allied health teams also saw a rise in occasions of service after taking on the enormous task of providing ongoing outpatient care to more than 1,300 high-risk COVID patients.” This demonstrated the capability within South West Healthcare to manage a large-scale health issue in our community, resulting in local people being contacted and cared for remotely by our teams, says Fraser.
South West Healthcare’s Warrnambool Emergency Department treated 25,184 people, an increase of 0.3% from the prior financial year, whilst the Camperdown Urgent Care centre saw an 8.5% decrease on the number of presentations, with a total of 2,048 people treated during the year. This figure however still represents a substantial number of patients who were seen locally in Camperdown.
SWH reported a 3% decrease in hospital inpatients, from 25,363 inpatients in 2020-21 to 24,595 inpatients in 2021-22. Whilst it may be perceived that this decrease resulted in less work, it is important to note COVID-19 was at its peak during the financial year and in turn resulted in an increased workload with significant PPE requirements for all our clinical and non-clinical staff to ensure high quality and safe patient care was provided.
South West Healthcare admitted 2,913 patients for elective surgery during the reporting period, a positive result given the number of restrictions placed on elective surgery during the 2021-22 FY. Elective Surgery lists will remain a focus area to increase access to theatres in the 2022-23 FY.
“It is important to remember that the Annual Report is reflective of the 2021-22 financial year and that during this period we continued to operate with COVID-19 specific beds, and with high-levels of PPE being worn in all patient-facing areas. This continued to put additional operating pressure on all areas of the health service. We have learned to be flexible, and that changes would come and go quickly during this tumultuous time,” says Fraser.
South West Healthcare introduced a number of new services during the 2021-22 year including furthering cancer services, establishing an infant feeding support midwife outpatient clinic, a heart failure nurse practitioner outpatient clinic, renal nurse outpatient clinic, and an emotional health clinic for obstetric patients.
South West Healthcare also introduced the GEM at Home program in late 2021, which enables semi-urgent complex and medically unwell patients to remain at home for treatment via a dedicated team, instead of making the journey into hospital.
“We are proud to be able to offer more services to our community, so that people in the south west can access better care, closer to home,” says Fraser.
In other clinical milestones, South West Healthcare embedded the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care and Mental Health, finalised a Clinical Services Plan and achieved accreditation of Human Service Standards for the Centre Against Sexual Assault service in the last financial year.
From an environmental perspective South West Healthcare reduced its overall emissions by 4.5%. LPG was removed from South West Healthcare sites, and all single-use cups used by our food services team were converted to compostable products.
South West Healthcare team members also collaborated to introduce compostable clinical consumables items including anaesthetic trays and kidney dishes, preventing a projected 328,000 pieces of plastic from going into landfill annually.
“Our organisation is so much more than just doctors and nurses. We have a number of teams who contribute to logistics, research and development, catering, environmental services and much more. It’s great to see that all areas of the organisation are striving to be at the top of their game and are contributing positively to our community and to the healthcare industry more widely as leaders in their fields,” says Fraser.
South West Healthcare CEO Craig Fraser also acknowledged the generous time and money that has been donated by the community to the health service through volunteer hours and fundraising efforts. In the 2021-22 financial year $287,948 was raised to support our on-going work, with $9,307 coming from community members who have left a lasting legacy and donation upon their passing. Through the incredible fundraising efforts and generous donations from our community; South West Healthcare was able to purchase:
– A rapid infuser for the Warrnambool Theatre ($43,800)
– SWH’s first-ever argon plasma diathermy unit for our Camperdown Theatre ($38,950 from a single donor)
– Cardiac output monitor for the Warrnambool Operating Theatre ($73,949)
– Infant Resuscitaire Warrnambool Maternity Unit ($40, 943)
– Chlorine Sensor for the Dialysis Unit $2,950)
– Patient Mover for Merindah Lodge ($8,999)
– Glidescope for the Critical Care Unit ($16,070)
– Panda Warmer, Camperdown Maternity Unit ($34,565)
– Oxygen Concentrators x 10, for the Community Palliative Care Unit ($15,000)
– Spot Monitor, South West Healthcare Chemotherapy ($3,800)
– 6 x infant cot tops, a foetal heart detector and a set of phototherapy lights Warrnambool Maternity Unit and SWH’s first ever transilluminator for the Paediatric ward ($9,131)
– 6 x bedside drawers, 15 recliner chairs, patients cabinets and a linear transducer for the Camperdown Hospital ($20,836)
– A new ECG machine for the Warrnambool Operating Theatre
– A Trans-illuminator for the Warrnambool Emergency Department.
“Our community has supported us in so many ways over the last 12 months, whether it be volunteering to assist patients and families, fundraising or donating funds for equipment or simply showing support for our team with coffee vouchers, food and other items during COVID. We can’t thank everyone enough, and we are proud to be a part of such a remarkable community here in the South West”, says Fraser.
The 2023 AEW Matthews travel scholarship was presented this year to Manager Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Rachel Robertson, who will attend the 18th World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH) World Congress in Dublin Ireland, in July 2023.
More details regarding South West Healthcare’s performance can be found in the 2021-22 Annual Report.