10 Spectrum August 2012

The Institute

Epworth Healthcare is Victoria’s largest not-for-profit private hospital group with four main divisions – Epworth Richmond; Epworth Eastern; Epworth Freemasons and Epworth

Rehabilitation. In March this year, a planned expansion of cancer services to compliment Epworth’s increasing robotic surgeries and medical oncology services, led to the opening of Epworth Radiation Oncology.

The underlying principles of this brand new service is to be responsive and deliver exceptional patient care with technologically-advanced treatment techniques as standard of care.

With a newly-formed team of radiation therapists, chief medical physicist, practice manager and nurse unit manager and a new Varian iX linac with Millenium MLCs, OBI and respiratory gating, Epworth Freemasons’ first patient received dynamically-delivered IMRT with zero action threshold IGRT on 19th March, 2012. In its first month of

Epworth Radiation Oncology arrivesPAUL FENTON, CHIEF RADIATION THERAPIST, EPWORTH HEALTHCARE

operation, more than 30 patients began their treatment in Epworth’s paperless information management system.

In April, Epworth Radiation Oncology transferred operational management of the Richmond site from Peter Mac. The Richmond site was equipped with two Siemens linacs, Lantis oncology information system and XiO planning system. The Siemens machines were approaching end of life, and with the exit of the manufacturer from the market, it was timely to undertake a replacement programme.

The transition to full Epworth staffing followed, with a secondment of the staff from Peter Mac to support the training of new Epworth staff. Workload was reduced to a single machine’s worth with new referrals transferred to the Freemasons site, (less than a kilometre from Richmond) in preparation for dismantling one of the Siemens machines and refurbishing the bunker in readiness for the new Varian linac.

The gantry stand is lifted towards the landing platform

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Spectrum August 2012 11

with the latest technology. Staff development is and will remain a priority for the group and soon the service will begin its involvement in national clinical trials and research activities. Epworth has pledged to facilitate the learning requirements of students and interns and has recently appointed the first Monash PCP student.s

A construction site industrial bin was cantilevered out the façade to act as a landing platform for the equipment; The gantry was the last item to be lifted in

A final engineering service was undertaken on the remaining Siemens machine in early May, coinciding with the end of staff secondments from Peter Mac.

Our first Varian Trilogy was delivered and installed at the Richmond site on 16th June with an appreciative audience who came especially to view the crane action. What sets this installation apart from others is that the department is on the fourth floor, and because the major heavy components weigh more than the 1000 kg weight limit of hospital lifts, they were delivered through the glass facade of the seven-story building.

A team of 30 plus riggers, crane operators, and transporters arrived pre-dawn to set up and the cranes began lifting at 8 am with four of the heaviest parts lifted to a temporary landing platform cantilevered out the side of the building from the waiting room. The Siemens machine counter weight (2.5 tonnes) was the first item lifted out. The four Varian items were then lifted into the buiding with military precision, and the site hand over to the glazier at 10.30 am.

The Trilogy Linac positions Epworth Radiation Oncology as the only private provider of stereotactic treaments in Victoria and will be bolstered by a second Trilogy at

Richmond where the installation process will be repeated.

Epworth Radiation Oncology boasts staff with extensive experience both nationally and internationally. There is a strong focus on the organisation’s push toward excellence in service quality which is achieved by harnessing the strengths and experience of individuals to provide cutting edge treatment techniques

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