A talented surgeon’s sea-change is set to pay off for Warrnambool patients.
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Adee Davidson will soon move his young family from Melbourne to the south-west to become Warrnambool’s first resident urologist.
His arrival coincides with new surgical equipment at St John of God Hospital and together it will broaden the range of surgeries that can be undertaken in Warrnambool and save patients the journey further afield for urological procedures.
Mr Davidson said the majority of operations, such as kidney stone removal, could now be done in Warrnambool.
“It will be a truly regional service,” he said.
“A lot of these operations are ideal in a regional hospital.”
Mr Davidson will move to town with his wife and 17-month-old daughter by the end of the year.
“My wife’s in education… It works well because she is currently doing a PhD, which means the maintenance of the Deakin University down here is useful,” he said.
St John of God chief executive officer Trevor Matheson said Mr Davidson would help people overcome the tyranny of distance.
The hospital’s peri-operative services manager Gill Wheaton said purchasing about $250,000 in specialist equipment would help Mr Davidson in his work and expand the range of operations that can be offered.
“We’ve bought a selection of rigid and flexible scopes to look at all areas of the urological system – the bladder, uretas, urethra, right up into the kidney,” she said.
“We’ve also purchased a laser that has the ability to break down kidney stones, which is new to Warrnambool.”
Ms Wheaton said previously a general surgeon had performed some urological surgery, but it would now become more specialised.
“A lot of the procedures that Adee does are new to Warrnambool, we just haven’t had the equipment or a proceduralist who specialises in those sorts of cases.
“People who are admitted to ED (emergency department) in the middle of the night with abdominal pain, which is caused by a bladder stone, they had to be sent off elsewhere for treatment.”
Mr Davidson will work with both private and public patients when he makes the move to Warrnambool.