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Continuing cancer care partnership for Wide Bay
A 3-YEAR continuation of a public-private partnership will deliver ongoing innovative radiation therapy to Wide Bay residents. The partnership between Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service (WBHHS) and GenesisCare, celebrating 5 years of service in January 2023, has now treated over 6,000 people with cancer. Before the partnership people needed to travel to the Sunshine Coast or Brisbane to receive much of this kind of treatment.
Wide Bay Hospital and Health Chief Operating Officer, Ben Ross-Edwards said that the partnership continuation and the resulting ongoing local care is great news for Wide Bay cancer patients.
In the five years of the public-private partnership, the GenesisCare centres in the Mater Hospital in Bundaberg and St Stephen’s Private Hospital in Hervey Bay have delivered radiation therapy to 6,221 patients made up of 131,631 treatment sessions. The team has grown over the years and now employs over 60 people from the local community.
“GenesisCare provides the same high-quality service and technology treating
patients in their Wide Bay centres as they’d receive in a metro centre,” says Dr Sean Brennan, Regional Medical Director at GenesisCare for Wide Bay and Central Queensland.
“Our Hervey Bay skin biopsy clinic is the first on the Fraser Coast and has served over 150 patients needing a skin biopsy. The initial appointment is usually available within a day,” he says.
Sonya Chapman lives in Hervey Bay with her husband, close to her family and friends. In 2017 she had a breast cancer diagnosis and received radiation therapy shortly after at the GenesisCare, Hervey Bay centre after initial treatment with surgery. She was the first patient to put a ’leaf’ on the GenesisCare, Hervey Bay ‘tree of life’ – a wall decoration in every GenesisCare centre where people can leave a message about their cancer journey.
“I am so happy that I can get great care at a top-notch facility near home. I felt really supported by the people at GenesisCare helping me through this scary and difficult time. Being treated in my local community made it so much easier, allowing me to stay near my family and friends and get on with my busy life,” she says.
