A brand new B. Braun Renal Care Centre has opened within Nepean Private Hospital, providing relief for patients in the local community.
The centre is B. Braun’s eighth in Australia, fourth in New South Wales, and second in collaboration with Healthscope, which runs Nepean Private Hospital.
“This is a collaborative effort with Healthscope, and it’s something that was in the pipeline for quite some time, and it’s wonderful to see it come to fruition,” said Russ Hoskins, Director, Ambulatory Sales Channel – Provider Business at B. Braun.
“In its simplest form, this is a place for healing, where we come to share our expertise, and to create an environment which promotes health and wellbeing.”
According to Hoskins, these centres are vital in Australia, and particularly in western Sydney.
“The demand for dialysis services is absolutely surging across Australia. It’s growing at an annual compound rate of eight per cent, and accounts for 17 per cent of all hospital admissions. That’s more than any other cause, so there is a very strong demand for this type of service,” he said.
The addition of the centre is not only a beneficial part of the private hospital, but also complements the services provided by the neighbouring public hospital, said Jay Jiang, General Manager of Nepean Private Hospital.
“I think this is a perfect example of us working together to create a facility that is going to be world class, and is going to be off the back of the private hospital, but also the public hospital,” he said.
“I’ve come from [working in] the public sector for about 15 years, and I know the public sector can’t deal with the volume that’s required from our community, especially in the dialysis space. I think these are the centres that we need to continue to push, because without this, patients won’t have care close to where they live, and I think that is the most important part of this partnership.”
The centre was officially opened by Federal Member for Lindsay, Melissa McIntosh, on Wednesday, February 21, who said she was honoured to be there given the multitude of hats she wears, including being Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Health, Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of MedTech, and mother of a son with Type 1 diabetes.
“Every night, I think, ‘I really hope that in the future, he doesn’t have chronic disease because of his Type 1’, and we are managing that so hard to make sure he stays healthy for the rest of his life, and he can live to 100 and do everything he wants to do,” she said.
McIntosh said she was ecstatic to have something of its stature in Penrith.
“I wish we didn’t need this centre, I wish we were tackling the cause of major health conditions in this country, but we are so blessed that we do have this here because it is greatly needed,” she said.
One of the highlights of the centre is their 16 dialysis chairs, making it one of the largest and most advanced private dialysis centres in Sydney.
Cassidy Pearce
Cassidy Pearce is a news and entertainment journalist with The Western Weekender. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, she has previously worked with Good Morning Macarthur and joined the Weekender in 2022.