Liam McNally
Recent mortality data highlights the need for hospitals in the west to start providing open heart surgery, according to Western Health cardiology head Dr Nick Cox.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released its Mortality Over Regions and Time (MORT) books on July 11, which showed that between 2017 and 2021 the leading cause of death in Brimbank was coronary heart disease.
Heart disease made up 11.3 per cent of all deaths in the municipality.
Part of Dr Cox’s work is with the Western Health Chronic Disease Alliance (WHCDA), a group that researches and targets chronic diseases in the west.
Some of the diseases the group targets include heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes diabetes, all of which rank high on leading causes of death in Brimbank, and are diseases Dr Cox said often “run together”.
“The west suffers from much higher rates of these conditions than other parts of Victoria,” he said.
“In part to the resources, in part to the higher incidence of smoking and lifestyle factors.
“People in the west are often busy, focused on their family, trying to get ahead economically, often they have come from overseas or didn’t start with all the same advantages … so they’re less likely to see a GP.”
Dr Cox said he is currently working with the Department of Health to assess the need for enabling hospitals in the west to provide open heart surgery.
“We have seen a fantastic increase in the amount of resources … [But] we’re really keen to see that service expand into the west so that patients can [be treated] closer to home and more rapidly,” he said.
“There’s a discrepancy between the east and the west …. We have a catchment of over a million people and have no service.”
Dr Cox said people concerned about their heart health should be aware of common risk factors including smoking, high blood pressure, family history, obesity, poor diet, and consider a heart age check on the Heart Foundation website, a heart health check from their GP, and learning your cholesterol level.
