Alliance

Working Together for Our Communities

The alliance between East Grampians Health Service and Stawell Regional Health continues to flourish and the development of combined services for our communities remains a high priority.

Over more recent times, due to increasing challenges for rural health services, shared services has evolved that now sees considerable benefits for residents across our region.

In January 2005 after much planning in consultation with Visiting Medical Officers (VMO's) from Ararat and Stawell a 'Shared On-Call Service' was introduced.

The key element of this service is to provide after hours medical and inpatient services with both East Grampians Health Service and Stawell Regional Health taking in turns (on a weekly basis) to be on-call for Obstetric and Emergency presentations.

This shared service has worked well and has been accepted as an effective use of limited resources.

Central Grampians Medical Imaging Department

Through the continued partnership of the two agencies, the Central Grampians Medical Imaging Department has been established.� Together with the purchase of new vital equipment including a new Phillips iU22 Ultrasound in Ararat and a Phillips Brilliance CT Scanner in Stawell, this combined service will also be a significant advantage to both communities across the region.

Chief Radiographer Michael Muirhead has been appointed to oversee the multi-sited service, and together with highly skilled compliment of permanent and casual staff, can now provide high quality Medical Imaging services to the Central Grampians area.

Importantly, with updated equipment at both sites, this means patients can have a high quality CT Scan and Diagnostic Ultrasound locally rather than having to travel to larger regional centres.