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Running towards a better children’s ward for the Ballarat Base Hospital
Dr David Tickell is gearing up to take part in the upcoming Run Ballarat event. But he’s not just another runner, he’s the Head of Paediatrics at the Ballarat Base Hospital – where funding from the event is set to drive the redevelopment of the children’s ward.
“The environment in which a kid is nursed while under care for acute illness is very important. And the current structure of the paediatric ward at the Ballarat Base Hospital is a refit of an old adult ward. And we want to make changes that make a child feel more at home,” Dr Tickell explained.
The redevelopment will help equip the ward to better treat kids locally, so that fewer children will need to be sent to Melbourne for additional care.
“Primarily it’s about keeping families together, and not dislocating people from their community and their places of employment and education. More time in the local environment is better for the family,” he said.
“We want to keep them as close to home as possible, not to remove them from their parents or their extended family – who provide valuable support while they’re in hospital,” he added.
Dr Tickell says it’s fantastic to see the Ballarat community embracing such a health-focused initiative to support the healthcare sector.
“I think it shows that people are community-minded and they certainly get involved in a worthwhile cause,” he said.
“There’s no better way than to use a healthy action to achieve a healthy outcome – and it’s a wonderful way to go about that,” the doctor explained.
Dr Tickell says it’s been a pleasure working with the event organisers, Adroit Insurance Group and Cotton on Australia.
“I think that the organisation and the sponsorship behind it all has been really excellent quality and we couldn’t have hoped for a better support team behind this,” he explained.