This week, Northern Health launched its new Oncology and Haematology Symptom and Urgent Review Clinic (SURC).

SURC is a free service for any patient with cancer, who is experiencing distressing side effects from undergoing systemic (chemotherapy or immunotherapy) treatment at Northern Health.

SURCs provide an alternative to patients attending the emergency department (for those with non-critical issues) and is staffed by an experienced cancer nurse, who may provide advice over the phone or request that a patient comes into the clinic.

These clinics have been established at major cancer units across Victoria and have proven to be a very useful service for patients undergoing cancer treatments.

Our clinic will be located within the Day Oncology Unit at the Northern Hospital, and will give patients direct access to Specialist Oncology/Haematology Nurse Practitioner, Michael Cooney.

“SURC will benefit the Northern community, as it provides a context-specific place for patients to call and go to, to manage treatment or cancer related side effects,” Michael said.

“It adds to continuity of care, in that they can get in touch with someone who knows their story and who understands what’s happening to them,” he said.

“It’s great that Northern has supported the idea of establishing one of these clinics, and puts us in the running with major hospitals that have also established these clinics,” he added.

Frances Barnett, Medical Oncology Head of Unit, said, “overall, the clinic aims to proactively manage patient symptoms, keeping our patients as well as possible and reducing their need to access emergency services.”

“Thank you to our SURC project team, the steering committee and consumers who provided feedback, the cancer services leadership team and executive,” she said.

Northern Health patient, Dom (pictured above), did the honours of cutting the ribbon to officially open the clinic. Check out the video below!

If you have any patients experiencing side effects from their systemic treatment at Northern Health, the SURC nurse can be contacted on 0498 131 363 from 8.30 am – 4 pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays).

The Northern Hospital foyer was buzzing with kids, parents, Melbourne University students and teddy bears, for another ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’ day.

This initiative, held four times a year at Northern Hospital, aims to help kids get familiar with hospital environments and some of the basic equipment, helping our youngest patients feel more comfortable when they come to see a doctor.

The programme benefits the medical students as well. Ashlee Frye, third year medical student at Melbourne University, says this programme helps them get used to talking to kids in a fun way.

“For some medical students, talking to small children can be scary. We are used to seeing healthy children, so opportunities like this can help potentially seeing and picking up on changes in behaviours, recognising symptoms and similar. We have to know what is normal first, to be able to pick up on abnormal,” she said.

Wei Qi Fan, Head of Neonatal Unit Northern Hospital and Associate Professor in Paediatrics at Melbourne University, said that both parents and children come to hospital stressed and anxious, and the teddy bear activities are here to help them familiarise, not only with the environment, but also with the stethoscope, bandage, blood pressure equipment and similar.

“The children who familiarise with the hospital this way find it less scary. While the kids get over the fear of the doctors, the medical students learn to engage with kids of different ages and to communicate both with kids and the parents. The mutual benefits are huge,” she said.

The medical students involved with the Teddy Bear Hospital are currently on their paediatric clinical rotation, in their third clinical year, and this is their first time to get in direct contact with the children.

Get to know: Q&A with… is a new series of Northern Health staff profiles, where we talk about working at Northern, hobbies, personal interests and fun things!

The first staff member we’ve interviewed is Colin Woodward. Get to know him:

• What is your coffee order?

I prefer instant coffee.

• Tell us about your Northern Health journey? 

I started at Northern Health almost 11 years ago. Prior to this, I was working in the private health sector as a Facilities Manager for Villa Maria Disability Services.

Being a Wallan resident, I wanted something closer to home and applied for a role at Northern Health that was being advertised. I didn’t get it!

But, I did get a request to speak with the Executive Director of Corporate Services at the time, where he told me that they actually had another job for me, as the Senior Maintenance Engineer.

Northern Health Engineering & Building Services department was just established. It was a tumultuous time and I eventually moved into the role of Director of Engineering around May 2010. When I first arrived, the engineering team was small. There was only 5 people. Today, we have 23 full time employees. We brought a lot of services in-house and in doing so, created significant savings financially.

It’s been a challenging time and now we are looking at another period of growth and development. This is pretty exciting!

• Can you tell us a bit about your career before starting at Northern?

I started as an apprentice plumber and gasfitter at the Greenvale Centre. This facility has since closed down and transferred its services to the Broadmeadows Hospital. My working journey has seen service at Western General Sunshine, Mount Royal, The Royal Melbourne, Royal Children’s Hospital and Thomas Embling Hospital.

While I was working full time, I was also serving in the Australian Army. I was only 16 when I enlisted and have had a colourful 26 year long career.

The high pressure environments that I was exposed to and the skills learnt in the army have equipped me to deal with the work I do today, especially in a growing, complex environment like Northern Health.

• What do you like most about your role and what do you find most challenging?

I enjoy the challenges of maintaining and developing the Northern Health environment, in particular, delivering on time and within budget. The biggest challenge is finding enough time in a day to deliver.

• What is your greatest achievement since working here?

I am proud of the number of tasks we in Engineering have completed in very short time frames and budgets. We have delivered great outcomes for the organisation and the community.

If I look back at the past 11 years, my biggest achievement is survival!

• What are the things people usually don’t know about you?

A lot of people don’t know about my military background.

The passion for military came from my father, who was drafted back in the 1960s and went to Vietnam in 1966. All of his three sons – my two brothers and I joined the army. My sister married a soldier as well. The whole family gravitated towards the military because of my dad.

The funniest part was that he never wanted any of his kids to join, but we still did.

There is also a story behind my father’s military service. There were three mates that deployed to Vietnam – my father and two friends. The two mates who served with my father were called Tony and Brian.

My dad’s three sons are called Colin, Tony and Brian. My father’s name was Colin, so was my grandfather’s. Nobody actually realised that until my father passed away in 1999.

My experience within the healthcare industry might be another thing not many people know. I have held a Board position with Plenty Valley Community Health – DPV Health, and I only stepped off the Board last year.

• What do you like to do after work?

I spend far too much time at work, but when possible, I can be found landscaping around our family home in Wallan with my wife. I have three children, a 25 year old daughter, a 22 year old son and a 17 year old son. My family and I like to go kayaking.

• How would you describe Northern Health in one sentence?

Northern Health is an agile organisation striving to meet the acute and sub-acute demands of the community utilising all its assets and resources.

• Who would you nominate next for a staff profile?

I would recommend Shiraz Lubke from Northern Pathology Victoria. She was part of the pivotal lead that saw the pathology service become in-house. She is very approachable and focussed on the needs of the organisation – I am sure she has a great story to tell!

‘Learning Improvement Science at Northern Health (LISN)’ workshop was established in June 2015, with the aim to give Northern Health staff a way to understand improvement methodology and feel empowered to go back to their work environment and make improvements.

LISN is an action learning improvement workshop built around a simulation of Day Procedure Unit (DPU). Multiple cycles are conducted to improve patient’s clinical outcomes and access, reduce documentation errors, while at the same time, improve efficiency. This workshop is crucial to the High Reliability (HRO) – Trusted Care transformation, as one of the critical success factors in achieving HRO is creating enabled healthcare workers who have an understanding of improvement science (LISN) and Reliable Innovation and Safety Science (RISSN).

On Wednesday this week, the workshop was delivered for the 50th time.

Ariana Carrodus, Project Manager, has been part of LISN since it began.

“I look forward to delivering LISN every month – it’s always such a rewarding experience to see participants grow, learn and even have some fun throughout the day. I feel very privileged that I have been able to be part of LISN for the last three and a half years,” she said.

Since 2015, over 500 participants from Northern Health and health services from across the state have attended. Currently, Northern Health is working in partnership with the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) to deliver LISN regularly to RCH staff and consumers.

Simon Lane, Improvement Capability Advisor at RCH, was involved with Northern Health’s team in 2015, when the workshop was first developed, and has witnessed it evolving considerably.

Upon identifying that RCH hadn’t had improvement workshops with simulations, the decision was made to collaborate with Northern Health. Simon is a firm believer that in order to know something deeply, you need to try to teach it to others.

“Ariana and I are now co-presenting to our staff. It’s been really effective and we’ve found that having mixed groups from various health organisations is valued by the participants. They get to hear that some of the concepts are similar and exchange ideas. Healthcare is a complex system and all departments need to work together to achieve a particular service delivery for a patient,” he said.

Simon explained that in order to make changes, organisations need input from all departments, and that is why all areas need to have the skills and knowledge of improvement science.

If you are interested in attending LISN please email the team at lisn.hro@nh.org.au

Do you have an interesting story for iNews? Please send it to our team at iNews@nh.org.au.

On 7 February 2009, the worst bush fires in our nation’s history, the Black Saturday fires claimed 173 human lives, injured 5,000 people, destroyed 2,029 homes, killed countless animals, and burnt through over 4,500-square kilometres of land.

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of that day, an event that occurred very close to Northern Hospital, marked by a commemoration ceremony at The Chapel of Northern Health .

The smiling faces of our volunteers are the first people you see as you enter the hospital. Our volunteers form an integral part of how the hospital operates and help us to provide trusted care to our community.

Brian Hoctor is a volunteer driver who has been with Northern Health for five years, and is a wonderful example of true community spirit.

A humble man, Brian says, “I’m not here for pats on the back, I’m here to help.”

His role is to drive patients receiving chemotherapy or dialysis to and from their appointments at the hospital, and to make sure they are settled, comfortable and feel safe.

Brian feels he is very much on a journey with the patients he brings in, providing comfort and an ear to listen. He refers to the front passenger seat of his car as a ‘confessional’, as the people he drives around tend to open up to him.

“These people are scared, they don’t know what they’re in for, they’re going to chemo or they’re going to dialysis, so the front seat of my car is very much like a confessional. It’s very honest and it’s like the chair that tells the truth,” Brian says.

Lynda Williams is one of those passengers, and is very grateful to Northern Hospital for the opportunity of meeting Brian.

“Brian is genuine and caring. He’s always listened to me, but never given advice, just listened. He’s stopped many tears and he’s made me laugh,” Lynda says.

“Because I don’t drive, I’d have to catch buses, so being picked up and dropped off removes a lot of stress. When Brian started picking me up, I was really freaked out about my hair, but his smiling face has helped me through it.”

A cancer sufferer himself, Brian forms close bonds with his passengers, as he can relate to the hardships they are facing. He says that sometimes he does struggle with emotional attachment.

“When you’re picking up the same person for two or three years, you get pretty close to them and you feel you are part of their lives. It’s a struggle to let go, but you have to let go and let them rest in peace,” Brian says.

Brian brings a lot to the lives of the people he drives around, but says volunteering at Northern Health has also brought a lot to his life.

“I’ve learnt to be more humble, I’ve learnt to smile on the outside and I’ve learnt to be compassionate,” he says.

“I’ll be here until I can’t do it anymore.”

Do you have an interesting story for iNews? Please send it to our team at iNews@nh.org.au.

Dr Prahlad Ho, Program Director of Diagnostic Services and Director of Clinical Haematology, was recently awarded his PhD for his thesis, ‘Evaluation of the management of venous thromboembolism and application of novel global coagulation assays’, completed in conjunction with the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne.

Dr Ho is a joint NHMRC and Heart Foundation Scholar, who studied the risk of clot recurrence in patients with venous thrombosis by the use of novel global coagulation assays.

His work has defined subgroups with higher risk of recurrence, as well as identified unique mechanisms that regulate clot dissolution, adding enormous value to existing knowledge.

“When I started this interesting and rewarding journey in 2014, my bemused colleagues firstly asked why I was doing a PhD, then why I was doing a PhD in Thrombosis and then why at Northern, as they thought I would never succeed doing research here,” Dr Ho says.

“My response to them was why not?”

Cardiovascular disease and thrombosis remain a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Australia.

For Dr Ho, Northern Health is ‘home’ – where all the patients are, where he began his internship and where he received postgraduate fellowships from.

The last five years at Northern Health have proven those doubts wrong and highlighted that research and clinical practice needs to go hand in hand.

The epidemiological arms of Dr Ho’s project, which reviewed over 1,000 deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism patients at Northern Health, has highlighted the importance of minor venous thromboembolism, such as below knee DVT and provoked events, which have substantial rates of recurrence and morbidity.

This review, which has been published in four international journal articles, formed the basis of the creation of Northern Health’s very own Thrombosis Service, which reviews over 1,000 patients every year.

Similarly, the challenge to clinicians today remains the ability to predict the risk of thrombosis and cardiovascular disease within our population.

“To address this, we looked at new blood biomarkers that evaluated the whole clotting system. We have demonstrated that these global coagulation assays, including thromboelastography and thrombin generation, are able to differentiate subtle differences in clotting parameters, which are not seen by routine coagulation testing,” Dr Ho says.

Using Dr Ho’s PhD as a basis, a thrombosis research laboratory has been established at NCHER, supported by Northern Pathology Victoria, to further address these questions with fellow colleague and PhD student, Dr Yin Lim.

Dr Ho hopes to inspire others to consider incorporating research into their lives.

“Research is a long and hard journey. The purpose of this journey is not the reward at the end, but the experience you gain through it, and something I would highly recommend.”

Do you have an interesting story for iNews? Please send it to our team at iNews@nh.org.au.

Broadmeadows Hospital patient, Keith Vandome, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was just 7 years old.

Today, he is 78, manages his condition very well, exercises regularly and with the help of new diabetes technology, he hopes to see the usual day to day blood glucose monitoring become easier.

“The insulin choices and treatments at the time I was diagnosed were nothing like today. I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years, and the management of the condition got much better,” Keith said.

Last year, Keith received the 70th Kellion Victory Medal through Diabetes Australia, for recognition of living with diabetes for more than 70 years. These medals are awarded every year to patients living with diabetes type 1 or 2 for more than 50 years.

Keith has been seeing the diabetes educators and dietitian at Broadmeadows Hospital since 2008, and attends The Northern Hospital every 4 months to see the Endocrinologists. At his recent visit in January 2019, Keith was put on the Libre Flash Glucose monitoring system.

The Libre Flash Glucose monitoring system is a new diabetes technology approved by the FDA in 2017, which requires the user to “scan” the sensor to obtain current glucose readings and replaces the need to prick the person’s fingers constantly.

Diabetes Educator, Susan Abraham, explained the scanning process.

“The sensor is placed on the back of the patient’s arm, and the patient obtains their glucose reading by scanning over it. Patients are finding this very helpful as the sensor not only eliminates the need for finger pricking, but also shows data in a form of a graph, indicating glucose levels for the last 24 hours,” she said.

Keith is looking forward to easier monitoring and said the secret to living with diabetes for so long is doing the right things and being open to new technologies.

“I listen to doctor’s advice, eat healthy, and regularly go to the gym,” he said.

At the age of ten, Keith heard a school teacher reading a newspaper article, saying the cure for diabetes is on the way.

He still hopes that day will come soon.

Do you have an interesting story for iNews? Please send it to our team at iNews@nh.org.au.