Funding from a Limestone Coast community foundation has helped make two of Mount Gambier Private Hospital’s patient rooms more comfortable for visitors. Prior funding from Stand Like Stone has brought a piece of home to families and friends visiting patients, by paying for couches at the hospital’s paediatric room.

Mount Gambier Private Hospital associate nurse unit manager Emma Thompson said the purpose of the couches was to provide comfort to visitors. “Families are here with their loved ones that are unwell at the time, so it’s nice to look after them as well as the patient,” Ms Thompson said.

Another sofa has been installed at the hospital’s palliative care room, a new room dedicated to Ray Scott who passed away there. A donation received by the Scott family has additionally gone towards new coverlets for beds at Mount Gambier Private Hospital, alongside palliative care funding that paid for a new airlift chair.

Ms Thompson said donations had helped pay for machines, medical supplies and amenities at Mount Gambier Private Hospital. “If you have donations that you can put towards them, it’s definitely beneficial,” she said. It comes after prior funding from Stand Like Stone helped pay for upgraded patient communication boards at the hospital.

The hospital’s chief executive Sandi Elliott explained the new, glass boards were an upgrade from prior whiteboards that had improved infection control at the hospital.