This means the Orange Health Service can now provide cardiac services to a standard previously only available in metropolitan Sydney.

What is truly inspiring is the fact that this service had its genesis in a community fundraising campaign back in 2002. 

It was in that year that the Mid West Heart Fund set about raising $600,000 to fund a cardiac catheter lab for Orange Base Hospital.

More than a decade later and in a new hospital the cardiac unit has had a major upgrade of the original equipment and now has the specialists to provide a 24-hour emergency service.

It is a level of service that is possible because all of the factors necessary come together in Orange.

The city has the requisite number of medical specialists to provide the pool of expertise necessary to operate a modern medical and emergency facility and to train others.

It also has the road and helicopter retrieval services necessary to service a medical hub and justify further technological investment of the type unveiled yesterday by member for Orange Andrew Gee.

But above all it has shown itself to be a community prepared to raise funds and overcome the hurdles that simply don’t exist in most metropolitan areas.

The medical profession, community representatives and our MP can be proud of what has been achieved with the $1.6 million upgrade and of the lifesaving procedures that will be provided in the future.

Last year there were 1400 procedures carried out at the cardiac unit, with hundreds of them quite literally lifesaving.

In a regional city 250 kilometres from Sydney that is something we should all be proud of.