Eyes on Busselton Health Campus

Busselton Health Campus has performed the most eye surgeries in Western Australia for the month of June – beating tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan region.

In the last 12 months alone, the hospital has performed more than 1500 eye surgeries and is equipped to perform up to 15 eye operations per day.

Heather Thomson, Clinical Nurse Manager for Surgical Services at the Busselton Health Campus, said historically all eye surgery was performed in Bunbury.

“Here in Busselton we now have state-of-the-art equipment and a group of very experienced clinicians that enabled operating lists to move to Busselton,” Ms Thomson said.

“We’re definitely regarded as the centre for eye excellence in the South West,” she added.

Ms Thomson said historically, eye conditions like cataracts meant major surgery coupled with an extended recovery time, however at Busselton Health Campus the operation now took around 15 minutes.

61-year-old Collie resident Peter Corradetti said he was surprised at how quick his eye procedure at the health campus was and praised the staff for their professionalism.

“If it wasn’t for the sticky tape over my eye, I would have been able to see fine,” Mr Corradetti said.

“The procedure was quick and the staff fantastic – I’ll be back at work on Monday,” he added.

Ms Thomson said the health campus has also started offering a relatively new surgical procedure for patients suffering from cataracts and glaucoma.

“It takes five minutes and sees the insertion of a tiny implant invisible to the human eye,” she said.

“The implant is injected into the eye usually during a cataract procedure and significantly reduces the need for more invasive surgery.

“And it can all be done right here in the South West,” she added.