Care from the heart

Calvary Lenah Valley Hospital has celebrated a milestone 1000 heart surgeries, six years since opening a specialist cardiothoracic service.

After having an angiogram at Calvary St Vincent’s in Launceston, retired local council horticulturist Ian Rowbottom travelled to Hobart for valve replacement surgery.

“One thousand is a lot of people, I suppose someone had to be that lucky one and it’s me,” Mr Rowbottom said.

He also had the chance to meet the hospital’s first patient, Hobart woman Toni Bird who was 57 when she underwent a quadruple coronary artery bypass in July 2018.

Ms Bird attended a special celebration to mark the milestone with doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital.

“My surgeon, and all the hospital staff, were amazing. I felt in such good hands,” Ms Bird said.

“I remember deciding that I wouldn’t worry about the operation itself, I would leave it in their very capable hands and just focus on the post-surgery recovery.”

Calvary regional chief executive officer Tasmania Melissa Evan said Calvary Lenah Valley Hospital was the only private provider of cardiothoracic surgery in Tasmania.

“We set out to meet a real need in our community and that need is still real,” she said.

“Health data shows heart disease is more prevalent in Tasmania than anywhere in Australia with more than 45,000 Tasmanians thought to have some form of cardiovascular disease.

“We have patients who come from all around the state. It means people can have their cardiac surgery done in Tasmania and don’t have to travel to the mainland, which in the past was a huge impost and cost for people.”

About 250 heart surgeries a year are performed at Calvary Lenah Valley Hospital.

“Of those, about 10 per cent are public patients so we continue to provide access to cardiac surgery for patients on the public waiting lists, which is one of the important partnership roles Calvary provides to help ease the burden on the local health care system,” Ms Evans said.