LGH A DELICATE OPERATION
PRIOR to arriving in Tasmania in 2011 I was a staff radiologist at Monash Medical Centre and Director of Radiology at Western Health in Victoria.
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We had developed a successful integrated cardiac imaging service at Monash Clayton and at Western Hospital Footscray using CT Coronary Angiography (CTCA) in emergency patients.
We published a five-year review of over 300 patients who had a negative (normal) CTCA and showed a high accuracy in prediction of no coronary events (heart attack or angina admission) in the study group.
Only two people died in follow-up after having five years' follow-up of sepsis and not coronary artery disease. The cardiac services of the renewed Launceston General Hospital need to be in the emergency department, accessible to urgent cases.
A CT scanner and software similar to the world-leading Canon CT at St Vincent's in Frederick Street need to be considered.
Surely deep pockets in the Northern Tasmanian community can support the Department of Health and Human Services in technology acquisition.
The cardiac radiologists at St Vincent's work with both public and private cardiologists, neurologists and vascular surgeons to provide state-of-the-art images to plan care.
St Vincent's has a busy cardiac catheterisation and pacemaker service in parallel with The Charles Clinic (Launceston and Burnie) and the excellent staff at LGH.
We have great ability to grow academic research in metabolic syndrome with Dr Gary Fettke's input in diets and weight loss, Associate Professor Gary Kilov at Health Hub in diabetes, public and private endocrinology specialists and GPs across the North-West. Please involve us.
Fraser Brown, Trevallyn.
LGH EMERGENCY
ON OCTOBER 6 I attended the LGH emergency department as the result of an accident. I am grateful for the elite level of attention and support I received.
This thorough service was delivered in the face of an overflowing waiting room, so a huge thank-you to this wonderful group with a brilliant culture.
Peter Gale, East Launceston.
EX-LIBRARIANS MAKING HISTORY
CONGRATULATIONS to the Launceston Library for 50 years of valuable service to the Tasmanian community.
Libraries have continually evolved to meet the expectations of an ever-changing technological world, juxtaposed with the connectedness and familiarity that has bonded the Launceston institution and patrons for 50 years.
Former Launceston librarians have made - and are making - a considerable contribution to record Launceston's history, at the very active and vibrant Launceston Historical Society.
Kenneth Gregson, Swansea.
LACK OF SUPPORT
READ MORE: LGH co-location bid 'must be approved'
IN RESPONSE to Launceston White Ribbon Committee secretary Carol Fuller's letter (The Examiner, October 6), I am always pleased to see the many ways that women and men support women to address and overcome adversity.
When adversity is a result of discrimination, sexual assault and other things that legitimately fit into the category of sex-specific badness, I am absolutely on side.
But why do women sometimes not support other women? Maybe it's because of that which they are pursuing - equality.
I have observed men and women within 40 years of relationship and family counselling.
I read the literature, I discuss research.
And I am not convinced at all that men are much different to women in categories of honesty and lies, truth and falsification, personality disorders, meanness, coercive practices and misrepresentation.
It plays out differently.
That may be why some women do not completely support other women.
Some women see that some other women are not really nice, nor fair, nor unprejudiced.
David Hunnerup, Mental Health Social Worker, West Launceston.
TWIGGY'S POWER PLAY
HERE we have one of Australia's richest people wanting to invest in two of the state's natural resources - fish and clean energy.
Andrew Forrest has expressed the fact that he has been left thinking Tasmania does not know if they want to sell hydroelectric power to him for making hydrogen at Bell Bay or Victoria through the Marinus Link to be built starting in 2025.
I am not privy to the price discussed so I would expect it to be - or should be - on par with what the aluminium smelter is paying.
To firm this situation up for Mr Forrest, Premier Peter Gutwein should get the Prime Minister or Energy Minister on the job.
I read a small article during the week where Mr Forrest was given $30 million to help at the Port Kembla energy hub, which has a gas-fired power station that is going to be converted to green hydrogen.
Perhaps the disused gas-fired power station at Bell Bay could be brought into this conversation as a sweetener on conversion to green energy.
David Lewis, Launceston.
HOTEL QUARANTINE NEEDED
PUT all people infected with COVID-19 into hotel quarantine where they are under supervision.
There's too much at stake for all Tasmanians to just blithely allow cases into home quarantine.