THE arrival of two new specialists will allow a Border hospital to potentially double the number of heart patients it treats in a year.
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Interventional cardiologists Ahmed Rehmani and Prathap Hegde have begun consulting at Albury Wodonga Private Hospital in the past few weeks.
Chief executive Doug McRae said the pair had joined cardiologist Jan du Plooy and his visiting colleague Robert Whitbourn at the hospital’s cath lab.
Mr McRae said in the last financial year the cath lab treated about 500 private patients, with procedures such as angiograms, pacemakers and stenting. He believed this figure could rise to more than 1000 patients a year given the expanded staff.
“We have an elective service rather than an acute service,” Mr McRae said.
“But with the increase in volume we’re certainly looking to increase to a 24-hour service, and I’d say we’ll be looking at that perhaps in the next 12 months.”
Dr Rehmani has been working in Queensland for the past two years and previously completed interventional cardiology training in hospitals in Canberra, Fremantle and Perth.
For the past three years he has returned to his native Pakistan annually to treat heart patients through a charity he runs.
Dr Hegde initially trained in India before moving to Britain for further study. In Australia most of his specialist training took place in Sydney, but he also worked in Albury-Wodonga during this time.
“From the start I always liked working in regional Australia,” he said. “I always liked the interpersonal relationships and the laidback way that life goes on.”
This time Dr Hegde comes to the Border from Townsville Hospital in Queensland, where he has worked for two years.
Both cardiologists emphasised the joint efforts required in their new roles.
“With complex cases you have to be on side and support each other and help, so it’s teamwork,” Dr Rehmani said.
“We are all here to provide the best service that one can expect in a tertiary hospital or major city.”
“We need community support so we can grow the service.
“For the heart, time is muscle, so delay in receiving treatment increases the risk of death, heart failure and reduced quality of life.”
As Dr Hegde added, “as a group I think we can do more than as an individual”.
He highlighted the rapid access chest pain clinic, which allowed patients, private and public, with non-urgent chest pain symptoms to be seen and assessed within 24 hours.
“It aims to prevent heart attacks,” Dr Hegde said.
“It should help the community quite a lot.”
