| Media Release |
|
Melbourne Health staff reach out to the world
5 October 2005
Over the past several months, staff from across Melbourne Health services have been involved in projects aimed at improving medical services or community access in impoverished or disaster-affected countries.
Emergency Training Links With Thailand
The Royal Melbourne Hospital's Emergency Department has launched an AusAID project to help Thailand boost its emergency medicine training.
Following visits from several teams of Thai doctors to Australia in 2004, the Emergency Department and the Department of Human Services submitted a successful joint proposal to AusAID funding for the project. AusAID provides sponsorship to a number of projects each year which enable public service organisations to foster links and development in partner countries.
The project aims to assist the Thai health system to develop a training curriculum
and content, and to provide experience in training and education for Thai medical staff.
RMH Emergency Department Director, Ass Prof Marcus Kennedy, said: "This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in a contribution to improve emergency care in an international setting.
"Sixteen Thai doctors will have the opportunity to spend a month visiting our campus over the next six months. In addition, Dr Don Liew, Director of RMH Emergency Medicine Training, will travel to Thailand three times over six months to assist in local delivery of training."
The project was evolving prior to the December 2004 tsunami, however many of the organisations involved were a key part of Thailand's emergency response. The challenges they faces highlighted generally very high standards of care but also some need to enhance training within emergency services.
Dr Paroj Khrue from Rajavithi hospital in Thailand said: "We look forward to starting this new work. Although all our texts and teaching are in English, and our drugs and systems are very Western in style, we have a need to develop our training systems."
Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok is the key link in the project. It has almost 1200 beds and is the centre for ambulance and emergency services systems, and coordinates much of the national disaster response capacity.
Mental Health Support For Tsunami Areas
Three senior psychiatrists from NorthWestern Mental Health have been providing ongoing support and guidance to tsunami-affected regions of Sri Lanka.
Prof Bruce Singh, Clinical Director of NorthWestern Mental Health (NWMH), Dr Russell D'Souza and Assoc Prof Suresh Sundram organised workshops and training sessions for local psychiatrists, registrars and other mental health professionals. These workshops helped build mental health knowledge, in particular in relation to mental health resilience following disasters.
The psychiatrists also presented papers at the World Psychiatric Association Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka in July. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, The Hon Mahinda Rajapaksa, opened the conference and thanked all those who had, and continue to contribute to the response and rebuilding of the tsunami affected areas.
Prof Singh lead a delegation from the World Psychiatric Association and Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists to the affected town of Galle where the Indo Australian Psychiatry Association and NWMH have been working with local mental health staff to build up appropriate services. In addition, assistance is being provided to develop a child and adolescent unit alongside the local teaching hospital and university. The guests were impressed with the work that had been accomplished both immediately after the tsunami and over the past months.
Further medium and long term plans are being prepared by Prof Singh that will build local capacity to deal with future crisis situations.
Dialysis Unit in Colombo
North West Dialysis Service recently supported service technician Janice Pickering and nephrology nurse Ianthie Kulatilleke to visit Sri Lanka to help set up a two-station dialysis unit at the Colombo South Teaching Hospital.
NWDS and other organisations from around Australia donated equipment to furnish the facility, which is now one of the few free dialysis services in the area.
Dr Kamani Wanigasuriya, Consultant Physician and Senior Lecturer in Medicine, said four patients are now receiving regular dialysis for chronic kidney disease, thanks to the new facility. The service is also able to provide dialysis for people with acute kidney disease.
"Janice did a wonderful job installing all the equipment - our technicians are not very familiar with this kind of machine - and Ianthie taught the nurses a lot of things on her visit, including how to care for people with kidney failure who require dialysis. Thank you both and NWDS for all you have done," he said.
ICU Nurses in Hot Spots
Two Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care Unit nurses have recently returned from working overseas; one in a war zone, and the other in a tsunami-devastated region of Indonesia.
Jenny Lumsden spent three months as an Airforce Reservist working in a tent-based Level 3 Field Hospital in Iraq, working as the Clinical Nurse Specialist (Educator) to mentor and support new staff with and without ICU experience. The 30-bed ICU - spread over three tents - treated mostly severe multi-trauma and burns victims, including US/Coalition members, Iraqi forces and civilians. Twenty Australian medical personnel worked alongside US forces, working 12-hour shifts at least six days a week.
Linda McPherson spent several weeks in Banda Aceh, where she was part of a medical aid relief non-government organisation team. She conducted clinics in refugee camps, working alongside foreign aid workers and local Indonesian healthcare workers. In conjunction with UNICEF, Linda also participated in the measles immunisation program for local children under the age of 15 years. Much of the work involved helping locals to clean-up and re-establish facilities lost in the tsunami. With the aid of translators, the team provided trauma counselling to help survivors to come to terms with the devastation from the tsunami.
TB Research: From Royal Melbourne Hospital to Malawi
RMH Ward 9 East nurse and PhD student Jean Dulanya has been awarded that Australian Federation of University Women's 2005 Elvie Anderson benefactor bursary worth $1000. Jean is researching the social and emotional well-being of patients isolated for treatment for tuberculosis (TB).
She has used the bursary to expand her study of patients undergoing treatment for TB to Malawi, a developing nation in South Eastern Africa where disease rates are high and resources are limited, but recovery rates are strong.
Jean, who was born in Malawi and migrated to Australia as a teenager, said she was both honoured and humbled to receive the award. She will spend several months in Malawi, where she will compare and contrast the treatments in both countries in a bid to increase the recovery of all patients, both physically and emotionally.
Jean also works as a nurse educator at the National Catholic University. She has been encouraged and supported in her research by Phillip Robertson (Nurse Unit Manager), Dr Alan Street (Deputy Director, Victorian Infectious Diseases Service), and her nursing colleagues in 9 East.
Media enquiries: Rod Jackson-Smith 0417 156 214 | 
