A COMPREHENSIVE team of oncology specialists from Bendigo will now provide monthly visits to Swan Hill.
Bendigo Cancer Centre oncologist Mark Warren will lead the team to provide ongoing review for Swan Hill patients already receiving cancer therapy.
The service will be offered through the new Swan Hill District Health (SHDH) Primary Health Medical Centre on High Street.
Dr Warren described the outreach service as an exciting step forward.
“It’s exciting, it’s nice to have a presence to meet the GPs and chemotherapy nurses rather than just speaking to them on the phone,” Dr Warren told The Guardian.
“And it’s nice for the patients; we can come to their town rather than them having to travel to us.
“Hopefully it will be the start of continued growth for the area.”
Dr Warren studied at the University of Melbourne and completed his physician training at Austin Hospital before undertaking oncology training at different hospitals throughout Victoria.
He completed his fellowship in Edmonton, Canada before starting at the Bendigo Cancer Centre in 2008.
“I always enjoyed the country areas and previously we were going to Kerang every two weeks,” he said.
“It will now be nice to be able to extend that service to Swan Hill.”
SHDH Primary Health Medical Centre director Dr Ernan Hession said there was a “real need” for a visiting oncologist and the new service was great news for Swan Hill.
“We are very, very excited for this service, we’ve been looking at it for quite some time,” Dr Hession said.
“Geographically it has been very difficult for specialists to come up here so we are very grateful.
“Now treatment plans can be mapped out and followed up with people.”
Dr Hession said the monthly service will lift the burden and stress of travel for Swan Hill patients undergoing cancer therapy.
“For rural patients, it can be quite confronting to travel to bigger towns and bigger centres,” he said.
“Now with the opening of our new facility, it will be much quieter and easier for people getting in and out.
“All of the little surrounding towns will also feed into this one area — it will be very helpful for our community moving forward.”
Dr Hession said there had been some “significant improvements” in cancer services in Swan Hill in the past 12 months.
“It started off with palliative care and now here with the new Monash University School of Rural Health,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to getting some real research activity happening in the new year and making things as relevant as possible to country patients.
“We’ve also got a few young doctors coming through so if we have a few interested in the cancer area they can work firsthand with oncology teams.”
Dr Hession said there had been some “amazing advancements” in cancer treatments in recent years and communication had “improved dramatically”.
“We now have greater awareness and knowledge of side effects of treatments and there is also far greater support from oncologists,” he said.
