Representatives from Heartbeat Victoria Bendigo Branch presented the donation to the New Bendigo Hospital Appeal on Wednesday. 

The money would go towards the purchase of the second cardiac catheterisation lab for the new Bendigo Hospital.

The new lab would be devoted to procedures treating heart disease.

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Bendigo Health Foundation director Jane Anderson said the hospital played a crucial role in the health of hundreds of thousands of people.

“Greater Bendigo and the surrounding regions of Loddon Mallee and Central Goldfields have one of the highest rates of heart attacks in Victoria,” she said.

“In the old hospital we only had one cath lab to assess and treat heart conditions, including emergency cases.

“The second cath lab will let us perform more procedures and also acts as a back-up for the current equipment.”

Ms Anderson said another benefit was that the lab would provide medical and nursing students with more training opportunities for cardiac procedures.

“It will also allow Bendigo Health to better serve the smaller hospitals in the region,” she said.

Cath labs enabled medical personnel to perform procedures like flouroscopies, where medical personnel viewed moving pictures of the heart and coronary arteries in real time. Cardiologists could then diagnose disease.

Flouroscopies could also provide a guide for procedures including stents and angioplasties, where blocked vessels supplying blood to the heart were opened. 

The hospital’s new cath lab equipment cost $1 million and Bendigo Health was working towards making more services available 24/7, especially when emergency cardiac interventions were called for.

The New Bendigo Hospital Appeal’s target was $4 million, which would enable the purchase of top of the range equipment and enable staff to provide the best possible treatment.

Donations of more than $10,000 would be acknowledged on the donor board on the new Bendigo Hospital’s internal atrium.

Phase one of the hospital redevelopment finished in January 2017.

Phase two was under way and included the construction of a multi-storey car park and helipad to link to the new hospital via a two story air bridge over Arnold Street.

A conference centre and retail space was also planned.