Grampians Health has expanded its cardiology services in Horsham as part of efforts to make specialised and timely heart health care more accessible to regional Victorians living in the Grampians region.
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As part of offering improved care, consultant cardiologist Dr Rajiv Ananthakrishna is travelling to Grampians Health Horsham every fortnight for ambulatory care.
He also supports the Horsham campus by providing advice to inpatients and cardiac patients at the Wimmera Base Hospital via telehealth consultations from Ballarat.
"Cardiac disease significantly impacts regional Australia, where residents often face higher rates of heart problems compared to urban areas, largely due to limited access to healthcare services, lifestyle factors, and socioeconomic challenges," said Grampians Health chief strategy and regions, Rob Grenfell.
"This disparity highlights the need for targeted health interventions and improved medical resources in these communities."
Cardiovascular diseases are increasingly becoming a growing public health concern in Australia, having caused 600,000 hospitalisations in the country in 2020 -2021 while heart failure contributed to 15% of all deaths in 2021, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
"Our Clinical Services Plan identified the need to start Cardiology services at the Wimmera Base Hospital, and providing priority clinical services across our communities is a key objective of our Strategic Services Plan," said Dr Grenfell.
"We are grateful Rajiv chose to join Grampians Health late last year and is now helping us deliver life-saving care across our communities."
Dr Rajiv is a comprehensively trained Cardiologist with extensive Clinical and Research experience in Cardiology and has worked in India, Singapore and South Australia so far.
Prior to joining Grampians Health last year, Dr Rajiv was a Consultant Cardiologist at Heart and Vascular Institute in Adelaide.
Going forward, Grampians Health is planning to expand its cardiology services in Horsham and will soon begin performing exercise stress tests, which will help to diagnose and monitor certain types of heart diseases and conditions.
In future, a public echocardiography service, which is a type of medical imaging used to detect heart problems, and Cardioversion, a procedure to correct abnormally fast heart rate are also being planned at the hospital.
"Improving access to care and increasing the clinical capabilities are among the major goals laid out for Grampians Health Horsham in the organisation's clinical services plan," said Dr Grenfell.
"We are glad to be helping to mitigate the risk of heart diseases, which are largely preventable and many risk factors modifiable."
