News & Events: Media Releases

Far North Queensland Patients to Benefit from new Cardiac Services

12 May 2009

Far North Queensland residents requiring interventional cardiac treatment will no longer need to travel to southern cities for this service after Cairns Private Hospital announced the commencement of interventional cardiac services available at the hospital.

Interventional cardiology involves opening up blockages or narrowings in coronary arteries with tiny balloons and leaving a stent to keep the artery open thereby improving the blood supply to the heart muscle.

Cairns Private Hospital has been providing cardiac services to Cairns patients since 1999 but with a new, experienced UK cardiologist in town, and the purchase of some state-of-the-art equipment, the hospital can now extend this treatment to include angioplasty and stent implantation.  It is expected that several hundred Far North Queensland patients every year will benefit by having this service locally based.

To date, Far North Queensland residents requiring interventional cardiology services have had to travel to Townsville, Brisbane and other such southern centres to receive this care.

Cairns Private Hospital CEO Mark Page said the equipment purchased for the Catheter Laboratory was the first Cardiac Dedicated Lab of its kind in Australia.

“In preparation for the commencement of the interventional cardiology service, Cairns Private Hospital has invested close to $2 million to replace all equipment within the Cardiac Catheter Laboratory and to expand its Coronary Care Unit,” Mr Page said.

The interventional cardiac procedures will be performed by Dr Roger Chatoor, an experienced UK trained cardiologist who has recently relocated to Cairns.

“Dr Chatoor in conjunction with existing cardiologists - Drs Tim Carruthers, Chin Lim and Joseph Ling – enable Cairns Private Hospital to now provide care for the vast majority of any cardiology needs of local residents right here in Cairns,” Mr Page said.

Cairns Private Hospital has performed over 7,000 cardiac procedures since the Catheter Laboratory was opened in 1999. These procedures have encompassed diagnostic angiography, pacemakers and cardiac resynchronisation therapy - a very specialist type of pacemaker and implantable defibrillator.

The official launch of the Interventional Cardiology Service at Cairns Private Hospital and the opening of a new Cardiac Catheterisation Lab by Christopher Rex, Managing Director Ramsay Health Care and Cairns Mayor Val Schier, was held at the Hospital today.