Communities across the Mid North Coast will now be able to access life-saving pacemaker implantation services locally, removing the need for most patients to travel.

Coffs Harbour Health Campus is now providing the procedure to patients who would have previously had to travel to Newcastle or Sydney.

Minister for Health Ryan Park said the new service will ease the burden on patients.

“I am really pleased patients living in Coffs Harbour and the surrounding communities will now be able to access most of their healthcare needs close to home,” Mr Park said.

“Offering this specialist treatment at Coffs Harbour Health Campus not only benefits the patients – but also their wider support networks - as they are able to be close to their families while they recover.”

Mid North Coast Local Health District Chief Executive Stewart Dowrick said this will be the first pacemaker service offered in Mid North Coast public hospitals.

“We’ve been planning to deliver pacemakers locally for many years and I’m excited we can now finally offer it to our local communities across the Mid North Coast,” Mr Dowrick said.

“It will remove the inconvenience of patients, in most instances, needing to travel outside the district to have a pacemaker inserted which can be a great impost, particularly for the elderly and seriously unwell who don’t have family or a support network nearby.”

Cardiologist Dr Austin May will perform the pacemaker implant procedures at Coffs Harbour Health Campus, supported by a small specialist team.

A pacemaker insertion is the implantation of a small electronic device within the chest to help regulate the heartbeat when problems occur with the heart’s electrical conduction system.

It is usually performed as day surgery for which the patient remains awake, and the recovery time is typically relatively short.

The specialist team will also be able to undertake pacemaker battery replacements and other minor procedures associated with the use of a pacemaker.

Coffs Clinical Network’s Director of Cardiology Services Dr Ben Lambert said the new service would lead to a vast improvement and enhancement of the cardiology services in the area.

“Coffs Harbour Health Campus is evolving into a genuine, mature teaching hospital,” Dr Lambert said.

It is estimated around 100 pacemaker implants will be undertaken annually.