Ramsay Newsroom

Dr Mariusz Wolbinksi was based at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital - Columbia University Medical Centre from 2018 until late 2020, and was one of the first doctors to contract COVID-19 himself, before the pandemic peaked.

He said by the time he recovered from the disease and returned to work in April 2020, the situation rapidly escalated.

“New York Presbyterian Hospital spans a number of blocks and is huge, think of it like a town, and the whole place became an Intensive Care Unit. Operating theatres were converted into ICUs dedicated to COVID patients, the Emergency Department had a palliative section made up for patients deemed too sick or frail to survive, and the instant someone died or got better, their spot was taken up immediately with another patient,” Dr Wolbinski recalled.

“What was amazing to witness was there was this incredible sense of community to come out of it though.

Hotels were providing free accommodation for medical staff who were coming into town to help, and a lot of restaurants were providing free food for people working at the hospital.

“I remember clearly every day at 7pm on the dot, the whole of New York clapped or made noise for about five minutes. It was truly amazing because there was no-one on the streets, but elderly people would be banging pots from their windows or people in their cars would blast their horns. It was supposed to be in support of essential workers but I think it was far bigger than that - it was about isolated people reconnecting with each other,” Dr Wolbinski said.

That sense of community has once again touched Dr Wolbinski’s heart when he joined the prestigious team of interventional cardiologists at Peninsula Heart Centre, located at Peninsula Private Hospital. Opened in 2000, the Peninsula Heart Centre provides state-of-the-art heart care on the Mornington Peninsula, negating the need for locals to travel to Melbourne for treatment.

Dr Wolbinksi said he enjoys working at Peninsula Private Hospital with its full suite of cardiac services, and being able to offer new treatment options to the local community.

“I really like it here, my colleagues and the staff within the hospital are so nice. In New York, given the institution’s massive size it felt a little like I was working in a factory. But Peninsula Private Hospital really has that personal, community feel while at the same time a world class level of cardiac services and technology is available. In my experience those things aren’t usually able to go hand in hand, so to have that possible here is really special.

“Often the bigger the institution is, the less personalised care there can be, is but that’s just not the case here and that’s something that really stood out to me,” he said.

Dr Wolbinksi performed his medical training in New Zealand followed by an advanced fellowship at Columbia University Medical Centre where he gained incredible exposure to new technologies. He has performed more than 1,000 coronary artery stenting procedures and 300 trans-catheter aortic valve implants.

For more information head to peninsulaheart.com.au or www.peninsulaph.com.au