La Trobe Financial Charitable Foundation to impact thousands with $2.5 million donation to Epworth HealthCare
The La Trobe Financial Charitable Foundation has donated $2.5 million to Epworth HealthCare to ensure thousands of Victorian patients can have surgery that has been delayed, as Victoria once again emerges from significant COVID-19 restrictions.
The latest donation from the Charitable Foundation will fund upgrades to hospital operating theatres and equipment, expand Australia’s first private Hospital in the Home Unit and provide accommodation near Epworth Richmond to support regional patients and their families.
Today’s donation means that La Trobe Financial’s Charitable Foundation has provided over $15 million to Epworth in the last four years, including $5 million for the state-of-the-art La Trobe Financial Cardiac Catheterisation Unit at Epworth Richmond, $6 million for da Vinci surgical robots across four hospitals, and the purchase of cardiac theatre equipment.
Dr Lachlan Henderson, Group Chief Executive, Epworth HealthCare says this additional donation builds on a long-standing partnership between La Trobe Financial and Epworth, “We accept this donation with immense gratitude, as it will enable Epworth to prepare our hospitals for increased surgical activity and help alleviate the significant backlog of surgical cases,” Dr Henderson said.
“When Epworth was preparing for the challenge, as the pandemic hit Victoria in 2020, La Trobe Financial’s President & CEO Greg O’Neill OAM was the first to pick up the phone to ask how he could help the public who may require hospitalisation. Without hesitation, La Trobe Financial donated $1 million to buy extra PPE and HALO powered respirators that helped keep our patients, staff and doctors safe.”
“There is now a backlog of patients due to elective surgery restrictions over the last two years. Some patients have struggled while they wait for their operations and this money will assist us to accelerate that work.”
Dr Henderson said all Epworth hospitals are ready to increase surgical volumes, including Epworth Richmond, Victoria’s largest private surgical hospital.
“It will require our staff and doctors to do more than we’ve ever done. The additional donation from La Trobe Financial will ensure we can meet the needs of our community.”
Mr O’Neill commented “our Charitable Foundation is proud to play an important role during the pandemic and for years to come. One person alone can’t solve all our societal challenges but working together to rebuild our communities must be our mantra post COVID as there is much to be done in both the physical and mental health areas to build people’s confidence and belief in a positive future. We need an army and the power of corporate philanthropy to now support organisations like Epworth in these times,” Mr O’Neill said.
“We are simply in awe of all the healthcare workers across Australia and the manner in which they have conducted themselves, and often placed themselves at risk to save the lives of others. This is one small way we can thank them for their untiring service and outstanding professionalism which will benefit Epworth patients for years to come.”
This donation of $2.5 million dollars will fund improvements in theatre, at the bedside and in the community including:
• A dedicated ear, nose and throat theatre;
• An intraoperative ultrasound system to provide surgeons with real-time imaging during operations to remove brain, pancreatic, prostate and bladder tumours;
• An ultrasonic tissue ablation system that removes tumours in the brain, without effective healthy surrounding tissue;
• 40 observation machines to monitor patients’ vital signs at the bedside;
• New intensive care unit beds;
• Renovations to two units near Epworth Richmond to provide accommodation for regional patients and their families;
• New cars to expand Australia’s first privately run Hospital in the Home unit.
About La Trobe Financial Charitable Foundation
The La Trobe Financial Charitable Foundation was founded in 1978 and is committed to supporting the communities in which we work and live. Through the Foundation grants and giving, we support organisations dedicated to improving the economic and social conditions of our communities. It is an integral part of the way we do business at La Trobe Financial and making a difference in peoples’ lives. Through our work, we have donated over $21 million to worthy causes and we continue to provide this invaluable aid to organisations across four key pillars including financial literacy for women, mental health, indigenous education and constitutional recognition of our first nations peoples and life sciences. We use our position as Australia’s leading credit asset manager to help improve the wellbeing of families and fellow Australians as we continue with our journey of placing ‘others before self’ and making a difference in people’s lives.
About La Trobe Financial
Established in 1952 and with over $14 billion of assets under management, La Trobe Financial is one of Australia’s oldest credit asset managers, specialising in credit investment solutions and real estate finance. La Trobe Financial has been a proven and trusted investment partner for institutional and retail investors for seven decades, operating Australia’s largest retail Credit Fund with over $7 billion in assets under management and 70,000 retail investors. La Trobe Financial has 5,100 distribution points across its two divisional arms – Wealth products are distributed through 1,600 advice practices; and real estate credit finance is distributed through 3,500 brokers. La Trobe Financial employs over 450 staff over 4 offices.
La Trobe Financial is 80% owned by Blackstone and 20% owned by management.
The Blackstone Group Inc. (together with its affiliates, “Blackstone”) is one of the world’s leading investment firms. Blackstone is based in New York, with 27 additional offices around the world. Blackstone’s alternative asset management businesses include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds, opportunistic, growth, infrastructure, insurance solutions and life sciences. The firm was founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman, its current Chairman and CEO, and Peter G. Peterson. As of June 30, 2021, Blackstone employed over 3,400 people, including 185 senior managing directors and has US$881 billion of AUM. Blackstone’s 260 portfolio companies generate approximately $136 billion in revenue and employ approximately 500,000 people.
La Trobe Financial is regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and holds the requisite regulatory AFSL and ACL to operate the Credit Fund, place RMBS issuances, and provide credit services.
