News

Southern Highlands Private Hospital invests in the latest medical equipment and technology for endoscopy services, to patients

Mar 13, 2018

Southern Highlands Private Hospital has recently upgraded their endoscopy equipment to the latest platform from Olympus, ensuring that all patients requiring an endoscopy procedure such as a colonoscopy and gastroscopy, in the local community and beyond, have access to the latest technology.

The new fleet of endoscopes have the latest imaging technology that allow for superior magnification and accurate detection of polyps and pre-malignant lesions in the gastrointestinal tract. They are particularly useful to differentiate different polyp types and tell benign polyps apart from malignant ones. This technology results in greater confidence to provide appropriate therapy for such lesions. Therapy can range from simple snare-based polyp removal to more complex techniques of polyp removal and ultimately surgery depending on the lesion type.

The newer fleet of scopes are particularly useful for flat types of polyps known as sessile serrated lesions. These lesions are being increasingly recognised and have an important role to play in bowel cancer development.

Gastroenterologists, Drs Farzan Bahin, Steven Williams, Ahmad Alrubaie, Nic De Luca and Cameron Bell, who provide endoscopy services at Southern Highlands Private Hospital, collectively say:

“The newer scopes have improved handling capabilities which allow for a smoother navigation of the instrument and thus a decreased requirement for deep sedation during the procedure. This enhances the overall experience of the patients having their procedures at Southern Highlands Private Hospital.

The overall outcome for patients and the community are very likely to be improved through the introduction of this latest generation of endoscopes."

Southern Highlands Private Hospital and Olympus Australia have been working together since 2010 to improve patient outcomes for the local Southern Highland Community and beyond to other rural and regional areas.

Olympus Australia and New Zealand, is a world-leading manufacturer and distributor of high-quality optical, electronic and precision engineering products, for scientific, medical, industrial and consumer applications.

Patient health, wellbeing, safety and comfort are the hospital's main concerns and Southern Highlands Private Hospital continues to monitor and evaluate its performance and services to ensure compliance to world class hospital standards.

"The aim of Southern Highlands Private Hospital is to provide accessible, quality services to our local community and beyond. Ensuring that we have the latest technology is very important to our Community's wellbeing," says Jenny Harper, CEO.

The Hospital provides an 'Open/Rapid Access' Endoscopy services to which GPs can directly refer patients for endoscopy procedures.

Southern Highlands Private Hospital is a 74 bed hospital, providing a comprehensive range of acute surgical services (both simple and complex), acute medical, rehabilitation and palliative care services. It has 4 operating theatres, a day surgery unit with day procedure room, 4 bed high dependency unit, hydrotherapy pool and gymnasium and employs over 200 professional staff.

For any further queries about the Open/Rapid Access Endoscopy Service and how to refer patients for their procedure, please contact the Director of Clinical Services (Kim Granger) or Private Practice Manager (Naomi Bermingham) at the Southern Highlands Private Hospital. Phone: 02 4862 9400