Saving hearts at Sandringham Hospital
Angela is one of the first patients to have an echocardiogram at Sandringham Hospital, after The Alfred expanded its services to Bayside.
The new service was created in response to high demand for appointments at The Alfred. Head of Echocardiography Dr Angeline Leet said 15 per cent of patients were having to travel across from the Sandringham area already, so it made sense to move the service to them.
Currently the service is two days per week at Sandringham, which the team hopes to extend to five days per week in the near future.
“Having this service makes life a lot easier for patients by cutting costs and travel time, so we’re really happy to be able to offer it at Sandringham,” Dr Leet said.
Echocardiograms allows cardiologists to look at the heart via ultrasound. It is used to for people with a wide range of heart conditions. Dr Leet hopes to expand the service further to include stress echocardiograms at Sandringham, which helps identify heart disease due to problems with the heart’s blood supply and risk stratify patients with certain valve conditions.
