Specialist a coup for Cairns unit

CAIRNS Hospital has lured a real “pacemaker” away from Townsville by recruiting its first cardiac electrophysiologist.

It comes as construction on the hospital’s second cardiac catheter laboratory gets under way. The $2.8 million procedure room is expected to be ready for its first patients by mid-2019.

Former Townsville Hospital electrophysiologist Dr Kevin Ng has joined the Cairns cardiac team. His focus will be on treating patients with abnormal heart rhythms.

Cairns Hospital’s director of cardiac services, Dr Greg Starmer, said the recruitment of Dr Ng – who trained in the specialised technique at a leading cardiac centre in Canada – was a major coup for the Far North.

“The people of the Far North deserve the best cardiac care we can offer,” he said.

“We have a great team of cardiologists here.

“The electrophysiologist we took on has been offered jobs in some of the best cardiac institutes for electrophysiology in the world.

“So we’re extremely lucky to have people like that.”

The new cath lab will expand the hospital’s capacity to treat an extra 577 cardiac patients closer to home, employ more staff, and provide new services including electrophysiology.

There have, however, been concerns among hospital workers that the new lab may not be adequately resourced.

Several nursing staff shortages during the past four months have resulted in the existing 24/7 cath lab being placed on “bypass”, needing patients to be transferred to Townsville for treatment.

It is understood at least two clinicians from the cardiac team requested transfers to other medical units, due to rumoured infighting among the team.

Dr Starmer said there had been “teething issues” within his unit, including the lab requiring urgent maintenance, but he did not foresee further interruptions.

He said his team members worked well together.

“From a clinical point of view, we’ve had non-stop interventional cardiologists oncall,” he said.

“So, even when we’ve had the lab not functioning for a period of time, we certainly have interventional cardiologists on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide advice, so that’s been uninterrupted.

“The team is working perfectly well together, as far as I’m aware.”

The second cath lab has been jointly funded by the State Government and the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation.

Foundation fundraising coordinator Glenys Duncombe said the charity’s next goal of helping Cairns Hospital reach university tertiary status had so far been well received by the public.

“We’ve had some really good responses from our donors coming to our lunches and the feedback that we’re getting,” she said.

“This hospital covers such a huge area.

“To become a university hospital, it would lift our stature in the Far North.” editorial@cairnspost.com.au facebook.com/TheCairnsPost www.cairnspost.com.au twitter.com/TheCairnsPost