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The recent opening of the new South West Regional Cancer Centre in Warrnambool was met with an air of celebration, not only because it will change the lives of local cancer patients who won‘t have to travel such long distances for treatment, but it’s also a testament to the power of the community.
Led by Vicki Jellie, they ran a successful campaign that pressured the former state government to commit $15m and the federal government $10m to the project, with an additional $5m coming from local fundraising.
Vicki’s husband Peter Jellie died more than six years ago from oesophageal cancer, his treatment involving numerous trips to Melbourne and Geelong which consequently took him away from his family, work and wider support network.
Vicki subsequently founded advocacy group Peter’s Project, which has been instrumental in the building of the South West Regional Cancer Centre, a huge benefited for regional families affected by cancer.
South West Healthcare Director of Nursing Julianne Clift said the 1500 people who walked through the centre on its official opening day loved what they saw. “I was there as part of the tour of the chemotherapy unit and the feedback has been absolutely fantastic,” she said.
“There were lots of patients and previous patients who came through who just loved it. It’s a very spacious area with beautiful views of the ocean, and when you’re going through a more traumatic time as you are when you’re having something like chemotherapy, they loved the area as a space to go to when they’re having treatment. And obviously everything is new which makes it lovely as well.”
Julianne said South West Healthcare has worked closely with Epworth Healthcare, which will operate the public service, to provide side services to them. “The other body of work we have been doing is trying to make sure that cancer services in the south west are as integrated and seamless as possible,” she said.
“We have been working really hard with Hamilton, Portland, St John of God and Epworth hospitals to make sure that everything is seamless for a patient. It shouldn’t matter where a service is provided, what we want is to have a smooth referral process so that the patient gets the care and treatment they need following optimal care pathways, and that we have a clear process to point them in the right direction.
“At this stage we couldn’t take on all the chemotherapy in the area and we certainly wouldn’t want to do that. We see ourselves as partners with those other services as well, so we have been working on a model of care and have involved consumers that use our service in that model to try and make sure that is it very integrated and seamless.”
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Julianne said a feature of note in the South West Regional Cancer Centre’s new chemotherapy unit will be the state-of-the-art cytotoxic preparation area. “When the patients have their chemotherapy, the fluids that make up that therapy are usually quite specific to the treatment of the actual cancer, so as part of the centre we have a cytotoxic preparation area,” she explained.
“It’s not a big area, but quite a sophisticated one where they prepare the cytotoxic fluids which have to be made in a sterile environment, because outside the body they can be quite dangerous drugs. A lot of work has gone into that, including two weeks of cleaning and air testing before we can move in there, which is one of the reasons we haven’t yet.”
Julianne added that private specialists South West Oncology are located on the same floor as the doctors, the preparation area and administration area for the chemotherapy, making it a more streamlined process than what presently takes place.
Then there’s the Peter’s Project Community Support Centre, which includes a children’s area, computer access, kitchen facilities, and access to further information. “It really is one of those community good news stories,” said Julianne. “It’s hard to get any buildings built for health, and if it wasn’t for the push from the community it probably wouldn’t have happened.”