BOPDHB History Tauranga Hospital Centennial Book | Page 12

The work of the Foundation restores sight to the
needlessly blind and trains local eye health specialists
to provide eye care services in their own communities.
In the last five years alone, the Foundation has
performed nearly one million sight-restoring operations
and treatments and trained more than 38,000 local eye
health specialists.
Fred Hollows died in 1993 in Sydney, Australia at the
age of 63.

Associate Professor Peter Gilling,
Urologist, Head of Clinical School
Tauranga-based Peter Gilling is leading the world in
urology research and cutting-edge techniques,
including the use of the Holmium Laser and
most recently robotics, to treat enlarged
prostates (BPH), a very common disorder
that affects 40 per cent of 80 year-old men.
“Compared to the procedure I trained in,
the so called TURP (Trans Urethral Section
of the Prostate), we developed a laser
procedure which results in a shorter hospital
stay – typically overnight as opposed to
sometimes several days. There are fewer
complications, so it’s safer and it’s long
lasting. Once this procedure is done, it stays
done. So it’s better, quicker and it’s safer,”
says Peter.

6

Recollection of Roie Kingan (Ball), Registered
Nurse, Trained 1954
Fred Hollows was in Tauranga for a short time as a
registrar. I have one funny memory of him. He always
wore a blazer and he smoked a pipe… we were in Ward
1 that night and someone suddenly said, “Oh I can
smell burning!” and of course there was panic stations.
Suddenly Fred put his hand in his pocket and, oh his
pipe hadn’t gone out it was burning a hole in his blazer!

“The research that was done here in Tauranga Hospital
through the 1990’s has changed the way people do this
procedure throughout the world. Venturo has played
a very important part in my ability to do high quality
research in the field of urology, which has put
Tauranga on the map.
“Through Venturo, Mark and I have been able to
introduce many procedures to treat a lot of different
conditions, including enlarged and cancerous
prostates, to the Bay of Plenty and New Zealand.
Holmium Laser therapies, many key-hole surgery
techniques, Aquablation (which uses water
instead of lasers), Brachytherapy (which involves
placing radioactive seeds into the prostate) and
Cryo-therapy (which freezes kidney and prostate
tumours) are some of these. Tauranga also got the
first surgical robot in the country used for treating
prostate cancer initially. This has only been possible in
the private sector so far, but there is an expectation that
we will be able to provide that service to public patients
in the future.”

In 1993, Peter and fellow urologist
Mark Fraundorfer established Venturo, a
unique public/private partnership model
which allowed the clinicians to take
decisions and invest in research and
technologies.

“Our procedure and technique (known as HoLEP) is being used worldwide
now. Over 300 hospitals in Japan use it, it’s being used widely in Korea and
China, throughout Europe and it’s very commonly done in the UK and more
recently in Australia and the USA.”

Peter Gilling using Cryo-therapy on a kidney.

Cryo-therapy probes in place in a patient’s kidney.