Supportive Care

Supportive Care

Breast Care Nurse

Breast Care Nurse Consultants have specialist training in breast cancer and can provide assistance and support throughout cancer treatment and beyond. We work closely with all specialists involved in breast cancer treatment, with a focus on surgical treatments. Assistance provided includes answering questions about breast cancer, providing information about treatment options, coordination of care including referrals and appointments, providing clinical care during your post-operative period, discussing options for breast prosthesis and reconstruction, provide access to a range of other support services dependant on needs (such as non-profits)  and providing emotional and psychosocial support.

The service is free and available to all patients with breast cancer throughout their treatment time and once treatment is complete.

Office hours are Monday - Friday 8am-4.30pm. 
You can self-refer or have a health professional refer you by calling 03 5454 6363 / 04094 16852 or via email [email protected]

Urology Nurse Practitioner

The Urology Nurse Practitioner is a highly specialised nurse that sees patients with urological cancers including prostate, bladder and kidney cancers. The role includes investigation and evaluation of risk of prostate disease, care coordination and referral to other specialist services, long term survivorship follow up and management of treatment side effects and community group education.

Your medical consultant may refer you to this service, and you can also request a referral.

Loddon Mallee Integrated Care Service (LMICS)

The Bendigo Cancer Centre is a member of LMICS. LMICS is one of a network of Integrated Cancer Services across Victoria. These are funded by the Victorian Government and were established in 2004 to facilitate the implementation of the Cancer Services framework for Victoria.

LMICS aims is to work with clinicians and health services to facilitate improvements in cancer services within the Loddon Mallee region.

Visit www.lmics.org.au

Accommodation and Transport

Bendigo Health is centrally located offering plenty of accommodation options close by the hospital. We suggest heading to the Bendigo Tourism website for more information. Limited accommodation is available in Bendigo for cancer patients, information regarding this can be found here.

You may be eligible for travel and accommodation assistance if you are traveling a significant distance from where you have your specialist medical treatment.  The programs for Victorian residents is called the Victorian Patient Transport Assistance Scheme (VPTAS) and for NSW residents it is called the Isolated Patient Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS). For more information on these schemes please call VPTAS on 1300 737 073 or IPTAAS on 1800 IPTAAS (1800 478 227) to find out your eligibility on what you may be able to claim. 

Optimal Care Pathways

Receiving a cancer diagnosis and navigating one’s way through the health system is not always easy. A lot can happen very quickly when you’re diagnosed with cancer. Optimal Care Pathways (OCPs) are a framework for the delivery of consistent, safe, high-quality and evidence-based care for people with cancer. Linked to the Optimal Care Pathways are a suite of consumer resources to support people with cancer called What to Expect guides. The guides can help you make sense of what should happen. They will help you with what questions to ask your health professionals to make sure you receive the best care at every step. The guides outline the best cancer care for specific tumour types and can be found at: www.cancerpathways.org.au    

Patients and their families can use the What To Expect guides to better understand the cancer care pathway through the often-complex health system. The guides have been endorsed by the National Cancer Expert Reference Group, Cancer Australia and Cancer Council Australia.

Cancer Council Victoria (CCV) cancer support referral

Phone: 13 11 20

Website: https://www.cancervic.org.au/get-support/for-health-professionals/cancer-support-referral

Contact Us

Location

100 Barnard Street, Bendigo, VIC, 3550

Phone

03 5454 6000

Email

[email protected]