ACT Chief Minister and Minister for Health Katy Gallagher MLA was today joined by the NSW Member for Monaro, John Barilaro to welcome the start of surgery by ACT surgeons at Queanbeyan Hospital.

As part of wider cross-border collaboration in health, seven urology operations were performed at Queanbeyan Hospital on 6 August and four gynaecology operations were performed on 9 August.

Fifty operations will be performed at the hospital ahead of a review, which will consider expansion and a potential annual commitment to conduct surgeries at Queanbeyan. There are another two urology 'lists' scheduled for 27 and 28 August with a further seven patients booked on each list.

"People in the capital region don't care about lines on the map, they just want their surgery done," the Chief Minister said.

"This trial has the potential to be expanded and formalised in the future to see more people have their operations sooner.

"There are people from both sides of the border on the ACT elective surgery waiting list. Now ACT surgeons are able to use some excellent NSW facilities to carry out operations at Queanbeyan Hospital.

"I'm committed to delivering more nurses, more beds and better health facilities for Canberra and the region, and I think it is an exciting innovation to have ACT surgeons using facilities in NSW," the Chief Minister said.

So far two ACT Health surgeons have completed NSW registrations to allow the urology and gynaecology surgery to proceed. Patients attend the hospital, have relatively simple surgery and are discharged the same day under the program. Currently around 30 percent of patients on the ACT waiting list are from NSW.

Mr Barilaro said the arrangement demonstrated what could be achieved when two jurisdictions work together.

"Many NSW residents use health facilities in the ACT and this new arrangement allows quality NSW facilities to be used by patients and staff from both sides of the border," he said.

"The NSW Government is committed to working with the ACT to ensure NSW residents in the capital region get access to quality health services.

"Our ongoing collaboration in health also covers cooperation in planning: recently ACT Health staff have had a say in the Yass Valley Health Services Plan, while NSW staff are represented on steering committee for the ACT Clinical Services Plan," Mr Barilaro concluded.

Media Contacts
Name Phone Mobile Email
Ed O'Daly 02 6205 0139 0403 619 646 edward.o'daly [at] act [dot] gov [dot] au

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