FIRST PUBLIC SLEEP LABORATORY FOR THE ACT

ACT Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher, today (23 July 2010) formally opened Canberra Hospital's new $750,000 Sleep Laboratory.

"This is the first public Sleep Laboratory in the ACT and will reduce waiting times for patients suffering from sleep disorders and those who require urgent assessment for respiratory failure," Ms Gallagher said.

"It will also contribute to a reduction in hospital length of stay, admissions to the Intensive Care Unit and interstate patient transport," the Minister said.

"A sleep clinic has been operating at Canberra Hospital for three years and has seen approximately 850 patients," she said. "A significant proportion of these patients have complex medical conditions and respiratory failure. Any diagnostic testing has required patients to be sent to private sleep studies laboratories in Canberra and Sydney."

"With this first public Sleep Laboratory, the hospital will be able to diagnose breathing problems during sleep and provide quality care to sufferers. Patients will be spared the stress of travel and the expense of private laboratories," Ms Gallagher said.

This state of the art facility is unique in Canberra, being equipped with digital video monitoring for diagnosis of certain types of sleep disorders, a lifter for immobile patients and both beds in the laboratory rated for bariatric patients.

"This Sleep Laboratory will help manage the expected increase in sufferers of breathing problems during sleep as the population ages and rates of obesity increase, as this disorder is more common in these groups." Ms Gallagher said.

The Canberra Hospital Sleep Laboratory will have the potential to perform up to 900 sleep studies a year.

The unit is staffed by a mix of full and part-time respiratory and sleep physicians, sleep scientists, nurses and other support staff specialising in sleep science.

"This Laboratory will, in the future, be able to provide assistance to children," Ms Gallagher said.

"Approximately 10 per cent of the general population in Australia suffer from some sort of sleep disorder, the most prevalent being insomnia, with breathing problems during sleep present in 4% of the population," the Minister said.

The new Sleep Laboratory will allow for overnight sleep studies in the hospital, as well as ambulatory sleep studies, where a patient has diagnostic equipment attached to the body, spends the night at home and returns to the laboratory in the morning for the data to be downloaded and assessed.

Canberra Hospital intends to seek national accreditation for the Sleep Laboratory, jointly from the Australasian Sleep Association and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. This will permit the training of future sleep physicians. The new facility will also be used for research.

Media Contact:

Warren Tegg 6205 0384 0435 961 012 warren.tegg@act.gov.au