Providing care for a catchment area of 250,000 people, Grampians Health requires new state-of-the-art resuscitation, ultrasound and anaesthesia equipment to continue to provide the best care locally for women and babies with high-risk health needs.

Infant Resuscitator Cots

From premature births and labour complications, to low birth-weight babies or those that are very unwell, there are many reasons babies require resuscitator cots, which provide critical breathing support. They are used in the Maternity Unit and Special Care Nursery and in clinical emergencies in the Emergency Department and the Operating Theatre. Funding will allow Grampians Health Ballarat to purchase a new fleet of the latest resuscitator cots, creating consistency across the region, and meaning staff will be trained to use the same equipment, regardless of where they are working. With battery back-up, these cots also allow the safe transportation of critically ill babies to the RCH if required.    

Maternal Ultrasound

Purchasing the latest maternal ultrasound machine will allow more complex scans to be carried out. This will help Grampians Health Ballarat to identify and monitor women who have high-risk pregnancies, including multiple births. This new machine will be an essential tool to ensure babies can continue to be delivered safely and close to home. The purchase will also create consistency across the fleet, ensuring the same care, monitoring and reporting can be offered throughout the region.

Paediatric Anaesthesia 

With a need to replace ageing anaesthesia machines, the purchase of a new machine will optimise patient safety and efficient throughput of the Operating Theatres. Integral to the new anaesthesia machine will be new patient monitoring devices which will align theatre patient monitoring with all acute care departments throughout the hospital, including the Children’s Ward, allowing for better workflow without the loss of vital signs monitoring. This also future-proofs electronic medical record (EMR) integration by standardising patient monitoring.

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2025 Funding Update

Grampians Health is the largest regional referral health service in western Victoria, providing comprehensive care to a population of more than 250,000 people across areas ranging from Bacchus Marsh through to the South Australian border. Grampians Health requires new life-saving and state-of-the-art equipment.

• Infant Resuscitator Cots x 4 – from premature births and labour complications, to low birth-weight babies or those that are very unwell, there are many reasons babies require resuscitator cots, which provide critical breathing support. They are used in the Maternity Unit and Special Care Nursery and in clinical emergencies in the Emergency Department and the Operating Theatre. These devices come fully equipped with life-saving features such as a heat lamp, autobreath and an in-built oximeter. With battery back-up, these cots also allow the safe transportation of critically ill babies to the RCH if required.
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• Maternal Ultrasound x 2 – Purchased two maternal ultrasound machines to allow more complex scans to be carried out. These devices are used over 1,000 times each month and help to identify high-risk pregnancies or any fetal abnormalities as early as possible. This has had a remarkable impact on regional families, ensuring that babies can be delivered safely and as close to home as possible.
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• Paediatric Anaesthesia machines – supporting surgical procedures across the service. These high performing machines will maximise productivity in the operating theatre, and importantly, will help future-proof the hospital’s electronic medical record integration by standardising patient monitoring.
  

“This generous grant from the Good Friday Appeal has helped us transform the pre- and post-natal care we provide to the families of Western Victoria. Our new equipment ensures the babies born in our community receive the best possible start in life, close to home,”

Dale Fraser, Grampians Health Chief Executive Officer.

From building an all abilities rehab playground co-designed by clinicians and patients, to prioritising learning and development initiatives across nursing, allied health and intensive care, new funding will foster fun and creative play as an enabler of improved patient experiences and outcomes, while also helping to attract and retain highly qualified staff across the Loddon Mallee region.

Kids Rehab Play Space

Recognising that play assists rehabilitation, helps learning, and fosters connections between clinicians, siblings and peers, Bendigo Health will build an all abilities, outdoor, natured-based paediatric rehab playground at the hospital site. Co-designed by clinicians in collaboration with their patients and community, the playground concepts are complete, and building is ready to commence. Having kick-started fundraising within the local community, the hospital now seeks the final funding required to commence work on this innovative, patient-centred playground.

Paediatric staff scholarship and specialist training program

With a commitment to attracting and retaining highly qualified and passionate clinical and allied health professionals, Bendigo Health will offer learning and development initiatives across nursing, allied health and intensive care. Programs include providing RCH training for allied health professionals onsite in Bendigo, piloting a nurse educator role to support the growth of paediatric training, and enabling regional staff to access intensive care training onsite at the RCH.   

2025 Funding Update

Bendigo Health is a leading regional healthcare service, providing exceptional care to the Loddon Mallee region – an area that covers a quarter of the size of Victoria. The hospital will now also be able to provide additional services for the increasing number of paediatric outpatients and admissions.

• Paediatric rehabilitation playspace: a new outdoor rehabilitation playspace giving sick children, young people and their families a space that fosters connection, learning and healing. The calming effects of this nature-based playground are vital for more than 100 patients treated by the hospital’s rehabilitation team at any one time.
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• Training and education: Funded two vital positions across the areas of allied health and nursing and provided senior hospital staff with realistic simulation training to help boost retention, attract new staff and ensure paediatric excellence continues to be delivered across the region.
  

“These important funds will significantly enhance Bendigo Health’s paediatric care, with the appointment of two paediatric nurse educators in allied health and nursing. Additionally, we’ve upskilled our staff through paediatric simulation programs and patient assessment workshops.

In 2024, thanks to the support of the Good Friday Appeal, we reached our fundraising goal for the all-abilities paediatric play space. We look forward to being able to utilise this play space soon,”

Eileen Hannagan, Bendigo Health Chief Executive Officer.

Goulburn Valley Health

New funding will enable children to receive highly-specialised, life-saving respiratory care within the Goulburn Valley for the first time, thanks to new equipment and training. Funding will also be used to create two part-time emergency nurse practitioner roles, support scholarships, and upskill staff delivering Hospital in the Home care, thereby keeping more children out of hospital, and servicing increased demand.

Respiratory support equipment and training – At present, children requiring critical respiratory support, such as high flow oxygen treatment, cannot receive the specialist care they need in the Goulburn Valley. New equipment, such as a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, will build capacity to deliver this support within the region, while RCH training will build local capability. Importantly, this will allow children to stay in their own communities, while also reducing the risk of deterioration during hospital transfers. 

Paediatric nursing scholarship – Four scholarships will be offered to broaden the specialisations covered by Goulburn Valley Health’s Educator role. The scholarships, which will provide RCH training, will be offered to Goulburn Valley Health nursing staff across a range of teams, such as the Emergency Department, Operating Suite, Special Care Nursery and Child Adolescent Unit. 

Strengthening nursing care in the emergency department – Start-up funding will cover up to two part-time paediatric emergency nurse practitioner roles to be created for Goulburn Valley Health’s Emergency Department. These roles will draw on the support of the RCH by accessing its education packages, and by seconding more RCH nurse practitioners to Goulburn Valley Health’s Emergency Department, thereby fostering professional development and enabling peer-to-peer learning onsite regionally. 

Improving capability for Hospital in the Home(HITH)care – Despite an increase in demand, Goulburn Valley Health’s Hospital in the Home (HITH) service is currently restricted to two days per week. By offering more training to provide services such as managing catheter access, which supports long-term antibiotic therapies, more children can be treated at home, increasing their comfort, and freeing up hospital beds for more complex care. 

Albury Wodonga Health

The funding will allow us to establish a Paediatric Hospital In The Home Program, invest in advanced medical equipment including an ultrasound machine for paediatric echocardiograms and a polysomnograph for sleep studies, and enhance our workforce training and upskilling initiatives. Ultimately, it will allow us to provide comprehensive, family-centered care to children in our region, ensuring they receive the support and treatment they need to thrive’’

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2025 Funding Update

Albury Wodonga Health

Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) – Hume region AAWH provides care to over 400,000 people across the region. The hospital strives to provide children and young people with the best quality care, as close to home as possible and making high-quality paediatric care for the community more accessible than ever. .

• State-of-the-art medical equipment: purchase syringe drivers, vital sign monitors, transport incubators and ultrasound machines, allowing for critical tests to be conducted locally.
• Established a brand-new paediatric hospital-in-the-home program: The Paediatrics At The Child’s Home Program (PATCH) has commenced, with ongoing training and upskilling to occur throughout the year, further enhancing the service.

Goulburn Valley Health

Goulburn Valley Health (GVH) is the main referral health service for the Goulburn Valley, caring for communities across Greater Shepparton through to the Moira and Strathbogie Shires.
New funding has enabled children to receive highly-specialised, life-saving respiratory care within the Goulburn Valley for the first time, thanks to new equipment and training.

• Strengthening nursing care in the emergency department – cover two paediatric emergency nurse practitioner roles for the Emergency Department to help coordinate the assessment and care of sick babies and children.
• Hospital in the home: broaden the capability of its hospital-in-the-home service, offering relevant training and new employment opportunities. This will ensure that clinicians can care for children with complex needs outside a hospital environment, and as close to home as possible.
• Scholarships: empowering GVH’s current nursing workforce with two post-graduate nursing scholarships.

“Thanks to the Good Friday Appeal’s generosity, GV Health has been able to hire a dedicated nurse practitioner candidate for the Shepparton Hospital’s Emergency Department, with recruitment underway for another, as well as support postgraduate nursing scholarships and upskilling of staff delivering Hospital in the Home care.

These initiatives will help to ensure clinicians can care for children largely outside a hospital environment, and closer to children’s homes, thereby improving health and wellbeing outcomes in our region. We appreciate and thank the Good Friday Appeal for this significant support,”

Matt Sharp, Goulburn Valley Health Chief Executive.

From upskilling staff to create Gippsland’s first neurodevelopment outpatients’ clinic, and purchasing new equipment to detect and manage eye disease, through to increasing the capability of nursing staff by purchasing specialised training equipment and offering RCH secondments, funding will change and save the lives of Gippsland children, in particular by allowing early detection and management of a range of conditions.  

Allied health scholarships – neurodevelopment – A number of new scholarships will enable Grade 2 Allied Health workers to develop the skills and specialisations needed to establish Gippsland’s first neurodevelopment outpatient clinic. Offering assessments and therapies locally will avoid the need to travel for specialist care, and will assist in the early detection of neurodevelopmental problems, such as autism spectrum disorder, and vision and hearing problems, thereby helping to avoid the adverse learning and development outcomes which are often seen in children receiving later diagnoses.   

Purchase of RETCAM (retinal scanning camera, neonatal) – By taking digital photos of the structures inside the eye, RETCAMs allow clinicians to scan for and manage eye disease. Purchasing a RETCAM for the region, and providing training to use it, will not only save children travelling long distances for regular testing, but will also increase regional capacity and reduce waiting times for patients. 

Capital works and equipment – In addition to improving the experience of paediatric patients in the emergency department and other wards, by upgrading play equipment and completing minor capital works, funding will also focus on upskilling the region’s paediatric nurses, by providing relevant paediatric training, purchasing simulation training equipment, and enabling secondments to the RCH.

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2025 Funding Update

Latrobe Regional Health (LRH) provides specialist health services to the region of Gippsland, caring for a population of over 300,000. Recently, LRH has seen a significant increase in paediatric presentations, and through the Good Friday Appeal’s funding, it has been able to strengthen their commitment to bringing care closer to home.

• Neurodevelopmental clinic: set to open in March 2025, will promote accessible and affordable care, providing personalised treatment plans to children up to two years old. It will be staffed by a multidisciplinary team who, through this funding, have each received specialist training focused on mitigating developmental delays.
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• Purchase of RETCAM (retinal scanning camera, neonatal) – by taking digital photos of the structures inside the eye, RETCAMs allow clinicians to scan for and manage eye disease, the system can help prevent retinopathy of prematurity; a treatable sight-threatening condition found in prematurely born infants. Purchasing a RETCAM for the region, and providing training to use it, will not only save children travelling long distances for regular testing, but will also increase regional capacity and reduce waiting times for patients. This equipment was also purchased in 2023 for the RCH, with both pieces of equipment being funded by Cadbury.
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• Education and training: Beyond the clinic, funding is supporting the provision of high-level education and training to staff across the hospital, especially within the Emergency Department, through the purchase of brand-new simulation equipment. This funding is also allowing hospital staff to undertake dedicated study days at The Royal Children’s Hospital, enabling staff to elevate their knowledge and skills to improve care and health outcomes for patients in the region.
  

“This clinic will be staffed by a multidisciplinary team who, through this funding, have each received specialist training focused on mitigating developmental delays. The clinic, set to open in March 2025, will promote accessible and affordable person-centred car, providing personalised treatment plans for children up to two years old.”

Don McRae, Latrobe Regional Health Chief Executive Officer.