THE East Grampians Health Service Oncology Unit will mark 20 years of service to the Ararat and wider community in February.<\/p>\n
The Oncology Unit will mark its 20th<\/sup> birthday with an afternoon tea on Wednesday February 11 at 3pm with an invitation extended to anyone who has been involved with the unit over the past 20 years, including patients, volunteers, donors and past staff.<\/p>\n More than 20 years ago, a need for oncology services locally was identified to allow people diagnosed with cancer to receive treatment closer to home without having to travel and stay in larger centres, causing even greater disruption to their lives.<\/p>\n In 2004 Professor George Kannourakis from Ballarat Oncology and Haematology was approached to provide an oncology treatment and outpatient service to the Ararat community and surrounding district.<\/p>\n In January 2005, thanks to generous donations from the community and funding, a fully equipped eight chair, day oncology unit was established in the south end of first floor (now the dialysis unit.)<\/p>\n Initially Dr Kanourakis visited twice a month to review patients having treatment and provide an outpatient review clinic locally.<\/p>\n Dr Craig Carden joined the department in 2011, initially working with Dr Kannourakis and then as of 2013 as the unit\u2019s oncologist. He continues to consult here on the second and fourth Wednesdays each month.<\/p>\n Haematologist, Dr Pohan Lukito joined the team in 2019 consulting on the first and third Wednesdays of the month alternating with Dr Carden.<\/p>\n His clinic has now increased to the first three Wednesdays of the month, with Dr Carden and Dr Lukito both consulting on the second Wednesday. Both public and private patients can be treated at EGHS.<\/p>\n Over the years, many community groups and individuals have generously assisted in facilitating programs and activities which have brightened the oncology area, including an art project called \u2018Sharing the Journey\u2019 and a quilting project \u2018Common Threads\u2019, with these artworks still adorning the space to this day.<\/p>\n As part of refurbishment of the hospital, the department was relocated in May 2013 to the north end of first floor into a purpose designed facility where it remains today. The unit is staffed by a team of oncology accredited registered nurses.<\/p>\n The unit is supported by Grampians Integrated Cancer Services (GICS) which provides ongoing education to staff keeping the department in line with current best practice.<\/p>\n The oncology unit is also supported by breast care nurse Sarah Carter who works two days a week, Wednesday and Thursday. She provides support to patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer through home visits, phone support and consultations in oncology on a Wednesday.<\/p>\n The hospital also runs the Cancer Council Victoria program Look Good Feel Better twice a year which is available to all patients undergoing cancer treatment.<\/p>\n The local Ararat and District Breast Cancer Support group has been a main contributor to the department for many years raising more than $48,000 to provide a homely environment for patients and eight treatment chairs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Ararat community has been enormously supportive of the oncology unit and continues to raise funds which allows the unit to update equipment and provide a welcoming environment, staffed with qualified professionals who provide that personal touch.<\/p>\n The volunteers also provided enormous support to the department by providing food service and support to the patients during their treatment visits.\u00a0 This continued until 2020 when COVID prevented this from continuing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe encourage anyone who has had any involvement with the oncology unit to attend the 20th<\/sup> birthday afternoon tea, we would love to see you there,\u201d EGHS chief executive Nick Bush said.<\/p>\n Please RSVP to oncology@eghs.net.au by February 5 2025 to confirm your attendance for catering purposes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE East Grampians Health Service Oncology Unit will mark 20 years of service to the Ararat and wider community in February.
\nThe Oncology Unit will mark its 20th birthday with an afternoon tea on Wednesday February 11 at 3pm with an invitation extended to anyone who has been involved with the unit over the past 20 years, including patients, volunteers, donors and past staff.
\nMore than 20 years ago, a need for oncology services locally was identified to allow people diagnosed with cancer to receive treatment closer to home without having to travel and stay in larger centres, causing even greater disruption to their lives.
\nIn 2004 Professor George Kannourakis from Ballarat Oncology and Haematology was approached to provide an oncology treatment and outpatient service to the Ararat community and surrounding district.
\nIn January 2005, thanks to generous donations from the community and funding, a fully equipped eight chair, day oncology unit was established in the south end of first floor (now the dialysis unit.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Oncology-20th-birthday-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-LV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2971"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}