Tweed Valley Hospital's Cardiology Unit is fast becoming the beating heart of the new facility, treating more than 1,500 inpatients in its first year of operation.
Established as part of the hospital which opened in May 2024, the Cardiac Unit is focussed on the diagnosis and monitoring of a wide range of heart conditions affecting residents of the Tweed and Byron Shires, who previously had to travel outside of the region for such care.
Under the guidance of Director of Cardiology Dr Martin Sebastian, the team has established a specialist cardiology service with registrars and consultants on-call 24/7.
Services include:
- A new echocardiography service to help with the diagnosis and monitoring of a wide range of heart conditions, with up to 200 studies performed each month.
- The hospital's first cardiac catheter laboratory which opened last September, with diagnostic angiography and now includes planned angioplasty and stent implantation procedures.
- An outpatient Cardiology clinic operating twice weekly with patients referred to the service by local cardiologists and General Practitioners (GPs).
- An early access multi-disciplinary Heart Failure clinic which commenced this month.
Plans are now underway to ramp up services to enable emergency interventional treatment for heart attack patients, and to increase outpatient diagnostic cardiology services.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Health Ryan Park:
"Since opening in May last year, the cardiac unit has treated many patients who would otherwise have had to travel across the border into Queensland or south to Lismore for vital cardiac care.
"My thanks to the team here at Tweed Valley Hospital for all their work to establish such a crucial service for the community and I look forward to watching it grow into the future."
Quotes attributable to Labor spokesperson for Tweed Emily Suvaal MLC:
"With new services like interventional cardiology it isn't hard to see why the $723.3 million Tweed Valley Hospital has been so embraced by the local community.
"This cardiac unit is meeting the unique and growing health needs of the region now and into the future."
Quotes attributable to Tweed Valley Hospital Director of Cardiology Dr Martin Sebastian:
"Cardiology is a fascinating area of medicine, it's dynamic and constantly evolving. Our team is performing really well and looking to build on our initial success.
"It's been an exciting opportunity to build a new Cardiac Unit from scratch, watching it grow into what is fast becoming a flagship service for the Tweed and Byron regions."
