If anyone understands the medical importance of a critical care unit, it’s this man.
Dr Eoin Casey, head of anaesthetics at Werribee Mercy Hospital, oversees a large team of anaesthetic specialists and is helping to teach the next generation of anaesthetists as part of a Mercy Health plan to turn Werribee into a tertiary teaching hospital.
Dr Casey, who hails from Ireland, did fellowships with Royal Melbourne and Mercy Health before making a permanent move to Victoria. He said Werribee Mercy’s soon-to-be constructed critical care unit was “massively” important for the area.
“In the two years I’ve been working here, the demand on services has kind of grown exponentially in both the obstetric and the non-obstetric population,” he said.
“If you don’t have good critical-care back-up in a hospital for the more higher-risk patients, in many cases you can’t offer a service to them. When we do encounter critically unwell patients – which is quite common – it’s a huge strain on the system to have them transferred.”
The Werribee critical care unit will be part of an $85 million state government-funded hospital upgrade that will include eight critical care beds, 56 inpatient beds and six operating theatres.
The Werribee Hospital Foundation and the Mercy Health Foundation have created an appeals committee to raise $2 million in the coming 18 months to help fit-out the new unit.
Through its partnership with Mercy Health,
Star Weekly will provide regular updates on the appeal.
